Family First Calls for Referendum to be Dumped

In their latest press release, Family First takes a step out on the ice and makes the sensible suggestion that the Government should forget about the postal referendum on the legality of smacking, that is scheduled for mid-this-year.  Instead of wasting $8,000,000 of tax-payer's money on a lengthy and drawn-out postal referendum, Family First is calling for the Governement to simply glance at the 390,000 signatures that were submitted, listen to the people of New Zealand, and go ahead and repeal Section 59 of the crimes act.

“If the government is serious about cost cutting, tightening our financial belts and prioritised spending to the frontline, it makes far more sense to divert that amount of money to more teachers, nurses, doctors and cops...
The law can be easily fixed by removing the criminality of parents who use reasonable force for the purpose of correcting their children but at the same time having clear statutory limits on what constitutes reasonable force.”

They dumped the anti-democratic Electoral Finance Act.  Now it's time for the anti-family Section 59 to be repealed.

Weekly Joke

How Times Have Changed


Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his gun rack.
1957 - The vice principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car, and gets his own shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - The school goes into lockdown, the FBI is called, and Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors are called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario:
Jeffrey won't be still in class and disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey is sent to the office and is given a good paddling by the principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt the class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie and is tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his dad gives him a spanking with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being
abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom falls for the psychologist.

Scenario:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in state prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.

Thought these were pretty amusing. From GCFL

Girl, 12yrs speaks on Abortion

Watch this (highly popular) 5 minute speech where a bright young twelve-year-old girl speaks out against abortion - her own opinion, and very well expressed. She covers a wide range of topics and arguments surrounding the issue - and sure, she's had a bit of help from her mum and dad - but what children don't get a hand when they're preparing a speech for school?

5/5 stars for this up-and-coming pro-life advocate!

Update

A scene from my favourite movie.  Here's some more great screenshots. From today until Wednesday we hope to run a table at the clubs days on campus at Canterbury University for our new Prolife group .  We're doing a free raffle, and naturally, the prize is a brand new DVD of the movie Bella!

Arts

Huh, I've finally got around to applying for my courses this year at University. I've made the seismic shift from going for a Bachelor of Commerce, to a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science and Mass Communications.  I was happy that they let me transfer across everything I'd done in Commerce into the Arts degree, as that means I can start on my 200 level papers next semester (mid 2009).

Right, now off to the pig farm for my last week of work there.  Last week we had weaning on the Thursday, which was pretty epic.  This week we're doing A.I. Yay.  I've got some cool pictures on my phone from last week, but I haven't got my bluetooth connection set up, so will hopefully pop some on the blog sometime next week.

Ok, I know it's not Christmas, but anyway...

Bloody Valentines Day

...the Pope's soldiers came into his little shack and slew him where he knelt. Of course the man was made a martyr...

My sister's written a pretty good rave at Valentines day. I agree with a lot of it ;)

Weekly Joke

Two lawyer jokes this week...

The Hitchiker
One day, as the truck driver was driving along he saw a priest hitchhiking. He thought he would do a good turn and pulled the truck over. He asked the priest, "Where are you going, Father?"
"I'm going to the church 5 miles down the road," replied the priest.
"No problem, Father! I'll give you a lift. Climb in the truck." The happy priest climbed into the passenger seat and the truck driver continued down the road. Suddenly the truck driver saw a lawyer walking down the road and instinctively he swerved to hit him. But then he remembered there was a priest in the truck with him, so at the last minute he swerved back away, narrowly missing the lawyer. However even though he was certain he missed the lawyer, he still heard a loud "THUD". Not understanding where the noise came from he glanced in his mirrors and when he didn't see anything, he turned to the priest and said, "I'm sorry Father. I almost hit that lawyer."
"That's okay", replied the priest. "I got him with the door!"

Charity
A local charity had never received a donation from the town's most successful lawyer. The director called to get a contribution.
"Our records show you make $500,000 a year, yet you haven't given a penny to charity," the director began. "Wouldn't you like to help the community?"
The lawyer replied, "Did your research show that my mother is ill, with medical bills several times her annual income?"
"Um, no," mumbled the director.
"Or that my brother is blind and unemployed?" The stricken director began to stammer an appology.
"Or that my sister's husband died in an accident," said the lawyer, his voice rising inindignation, "leaving her penniless with three kids?"
The humiliated director said simply,"I had no idea."
"So, if I don't give any money to them, why would I give money to you?"

Euthanasia

35 year-old Italian woman Eluana Englaro has been in a coma for 17 years, following a car accident in 1992. After years of debate in the legislature and in public, her father has finally been granted the right by the court to have her feeding tube unplugged. The Roman Catholic church has spoken out against this of course, with Cardinal Antonelli saying,

"Eluana is in a 'vegetative state,' but she is not a vegetable. She is a person who is sleeping," he said. "The person, also when she is sleeping or disabled, retains all of her dignity. The person is valuable in herself, not for what she produces or consumes, or for the pleasure or satisfaction she gives to others." - catholicnewsagency.com

The Free Dictionary defines Euthanasia as being "The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment."  However, this one definition encompasses what I think are two very different actions.  The first is to actively kill someone who is suffering terrible pain.  The second is to withdraw an unnatural means of keeping the suffering person alive.  One is active, the other is passive, and it can't be right to talk about them as being the same thing.

Ideally, Eluana would continue to receive her life support through the feeding tubes. However, we do not live in an ideal world, and there is suffering everywhere.  At some level, we are forced to place a dollar-value on a person's life; we must make the awful decision between investing money here, to save one life, or here, to save ten lives.

One other notable aspect of such a case, is that it sets a precedent for future cases.  Will an amendment to Italy's euthanasia law provide a loophole for people wishing to end their own life, or the life of a relative?

23 Week Born Alive Baby, Murdered

"an 18-year-old girl went to a clinic in Florida for a late-term abortion at 23 weeks. Three days later, after receiving medication, the young woman went into labor and gave birth to a live baby girl. Since the doctor failed to show up in time, one of the clinic’s owners who was not even licensed to practice medicine, cut the umbilical cord, placed the baby in a medical waste bag, and threw it in the trash. - Fox News

Read a full account in the Buffalo News , and information of the lawsuit at LifeSiteNews.com.

According to the law, if you kill the child while it is inside its mother, that's ok, however the moment that the child is born, its suddenly "human", and it's illegal to kill it.  Why do people continue to willingly turn a blind eye to this silent holocaust, forcing themselves not to think about how absolutely evil it is?  Who has the right to say that a baby is a bit of tissue with no rights, and then the next instant, a human being with the same rights to life and liberty as the rest of us?

It's disgusting.

Imagine the Potential

Another excellent video advert from Catholic Vote . This unoffensive and non-judgmental advert was scheduled to air during the Super Bowl on NBC, however they refused to show it because they claimed that they didn't want to air political or issue advocacy advertisements.

Weekly Joke

A farmer was showing his city-friend around his farm. He showed him the cows and the sheep, and his big new tractor in the equipment shed.  As they were heading back to the farm-house, they stopped at the pig-pen.  The man from the city looked at the pigs, and was surprised to see that one of them had a wooden leg! He asked the farmer why the pig had a wooden leg.  "Oh that pig," said the farmer, "that pig is a very special pig." He pulled out his tobacco, rolled a cigarette, lit up and sighed contentedly.  "A few years back our house was burning down, and we were all asleep inside" the farmer began.  "This 'ere pig smelled the smoke and saw the flames.  He ran into the burning house and, holding the collar of my pajamas with his teeth, pulled me out. Then he ran back in and pulled my wife out of the house. Then he ran back into the house and pulled out my young girl to safety.  Then he ran back into the house to pull out our baby son.  Finally, braving the terrible flames, he ran back in and collected our valuable heirlooms such as our wedding photo-album, and dragged them all out onto the front lawn, to safety.  Then he ran to the well and filled a bucket with water and ran back to the house to pour the water on the flames.  He kept running back and forth from the well to the house, keeping the flames under control until the fire-engine rolled up.  "Wow, what an amazing pig!" exclaimed the man from the city, leaning on a fence-post and looking intently at the pig.  "But you haven't told me how it got the wooden leg" he reminded the farmer.  "Oh," said the farmer, "you don't eat a pig like that all at once!"

- wrote this one from memory, since I couldn't find a version that was any good online.

I'm Still Here...

hat tip, Scrubone

Star Studded Super Step hasn't succumbed yet. I think I'll be back into blogging around the beginning of March or thereabouts. In the meantime, I'm enjoying sitting back and keeping an eye on your blogs - and getting some reading done! I'll hopefully write up some sort of a book review for the one I'm reading at the moment... if I eventually get to the end of it.

A couple of other things... Gran Torino is an absolute stunner of a movie if you get a chance to see it.  9/10 I reckon, for Clint Eastwood who directs and is the lead actor. It's currently #82 movie in the World and has only been out for a couple of weeks. Also, check out the new online pro-life store at the Prolife NZ website.  We hope to get a whole bunch of new products up on there shortly.

;)

Weekly Joke

The Waltons invited their new neighbors over to dinner. During dinner Mr. Walton was asked what he did for a living.

Eight-year-old Brian Walton jumped in and said, "Daddy is a fisherman!"

Mrs. Walton replied, "Brian, why do say that? Your daddy is a stockbroker, not a fisherman."

"No, Mom. Every time we visit Dad at work and he hangs up the phone, he laughs, rubs his hands together, and says, 'I just caught another fish!'"

Weekly Joke

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?



SARAH PALIN: Before it got to the other side, I shot the chicken, cleaned and dressed it, and had chicken burgers for lunch.

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either against us or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now and will remain against it.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed access to the other side of the road.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash or need to be rebooted.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

From GCFL

Nature Abhors a Vacuum

...following on from my post on the meaning(lessness) of life, this from MercatorNet...

There has been a lot of talk about greed on Wall Street in recent months, but the greed of Black Friday shoppers in the United States takes some beating. Wall Street barons may have done some wicked things, but have they, individually or en masse, physically trampled anyone to death?

That is what some main street New Yorkers managed to do last Friday in their frenzy to bag bargains at a Wal-Mart store on a day designated the “start of the holiday-shopping season” -- once known as Christmas shopping.

Before rushing ahead with “the moral of this story is” observations, let’s pause to take in exactly what kind of death 34-year-old shop worker Jdimytai Damour died. A shrieking mob of fellow human beings burst through the front doors of the store, knocked him down onto the linoleum tiles and streamed right over him and around him, injuring him and robbing him of air. He was a hefty man, 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, but he died of asphyxiation.

It is an horrific death. Imagine the shock and terror of being hit and enveloped by that tsunami of solid flesh, pounding feet and frenzied voices -- your last conscious image of the human race...

...Nature abhors a vacuum. If people have nothing higher to fill their imaginations and get them out of bed in the morning than a super-discounted 42-inch flat screen television -- or, for the Wall Street crowd, a luxury yacht and a subtropical retreat -- that is what they will go after. The death of Jdimytai Damour shows where that spiritual poverty leads. It is not the only sign, of course, but it is a compelling one, and a call to action for all those who value the transcendent dimension of the human being.

Click here to read the entire article.

Weekly Joke (yes it's back)

I decided to get my husband to address Christmas cards, as I had so much to do. I arranged everything we needed, then hopefully pulled up a chair and said, "Come on, Dear, let's get these out of the way."

He glanced at the array on the table, turned away and went into the den, returning moments later with a high stack of cards, stamped, sealed, and addressed.

"They're last year's," he said. "I forgot to mail them. Now let's go out to dinner and relax."

From Daily Humour. For past weekly jokes, click here.

Let's go Fly a Kite

Yesterday I climbed up a tree in the park and got a kite that had been stuck up there. It still had a decent bit of string tied to it, so we flew it around a bit, it is good fun trying to keep it up there in the azure.

Click here to see larger versions of the photos on Flickr.


Let's Go Fly a Kite - from Marry Poppins


Mr. Banks:
With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You're a bird in a flight
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite

Oh, oh, oh!
Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite!

Bert:
When you send it flyin' up there
All at once you're lighter than air
You can dance on the breeze
Over 'ouses and trees
With your first 'olding tight
To the string of your kite

Londoners:
Oh, oh, oh!
Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Let's go fly a kite!

Rush Here, Rush There, Get No Place

Today is the first day of 2009, and we are all one year older than we were on the first of January 2008. We are all one year closer to the day of our death.  We see ageing men putting on their sandals, board-shorts and screen-printed t-shirts from Hallensteins.  We see ageing women disfigured by layers of make-up, desperately trying to retain their youth.  It is now offensive to mention someone's age, as it only serves as a reminder of how much longer that person has left on this planet Earth.  In every direction we look, we see people running very busy lives.  There's so much to do: work, sport, celebrities, parties, charity, family, holidays.  In the words of Cliff Richard's song, "Funny thing the human race, Rush here, rush there, get no place."

King Solomon also saw the hopelessness of so many of the people around him.  In Ecclesiastes 1:1-4 , he writes,

"Vanity of vanities", says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What profit has a man from all his labour, in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever"

Solomon uses the word vanity in the same way that we would use the word meaningless.  He is looking at life from through the eyes of someone who does not trust in God.  He mentions specifically the seeming futility of work - the same thing Jesus addresses when he tells the parable of the Rich Fool.  And indeed, without God, without absolute truth, everything is meaningless.  Taxi driver Jose Martinez had it sorted out in an interview with LIFE Magazine where he said,

"We're here to die, just live and die. I live driving a cab. I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay  taxes, do a little reading, then get ready to drop dead. You've got to be strong about it. Life is a big fake..."

The thing is, people are so desperate to block out the truth that they fill their lives with ultimately pointless things.  Whether it's the Cricket score from the weekend, or donating towards eye-operations for blind children in third-world countries, they will find something to keep them busy.  Robert Altman, director of the Oscar-winning film Gosford Park summed this up when he said,

"None of it - gambling, money, winning or losing - has any real value. It is simply a way of killing time, like crossword puzzles... I am sitting here today in this bleak atmosphere in the middle of winter, making a silly movie, and to me it is an adventure. I have no idea what it will be like. But even if it works it will be for nothing. If I had never lived, if the sperm that hit the egg had missed, it would have made no difference to anything."

The Preacher saying "everything is meaningless", God telling the Rich fool that his life would be required of him that very night, the taxi-driver speaking of "getting ready to drop dead", and Robert Altman talking about his life being inconsequential - they are all correct - but only in their frame of reference.  Because in Psalm 2, it talks about God sitting up in Heaven, laughing at the folly of the people down on His planet Earth who would stand against him.  Yes, without God, everything is meaningless and I'll just crawl into a corner and cut my wrists thank-you very much.  And without God, there is also no absolute right or wrong - and so you can't tell me that what I'm saying is correct, or a load of rubbish.

But God does exist.  Though we rebel against Him, He has mercifully opened the door for us to escape His wrath - by sending His Son to the world as a little baby, on Christmas day 2008 years ago.  Jesus was all God and all man, and throughout his entire life, he never sinned.  When he died on the cross (Easter), He was paying the price for all the sins of the people who would put their trust in Him as their Lord and Saviour.  That's all there is to it - there's no need to try and please God through good works - because compared with God's perfection, our good deeds are just filthy rags.  Of course, on the other hand that doesn't mean we don't do good works - just that our salvation is not based on our ability to please God.  What a relief!

The Example of Guido de Brès

I was reading about Guido de Brès - Author of the Belgic Confession earlier this evening.  This is one of the confessions that the Reformed Church of New Zealand holds to. When I picked up my JohnMac Bible later on, looking for some good verses to put in a Birthday card, I thought I would read Romans 8.  The second half of Romans 8 is an absolute goldmine of encouragement for Christians.  Here's a few excerpts...

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Guido de Brès understood these truths, and he lived by them.  He persevered with preaching from the Bible in secret, and in great danger.  Below is a description of his persecution and ultimate martyrdom by the Roman Catholic authorities. (You can read the entire brief biography at this page )

de Brès spent the first part of his captivity in a prison in Doornik, where he could receive visitors. Many of his visitors, however, were enemies who came to taunt him. But just as was the case with the apostle Paul (Philippians 1:12-14), Guido's imprisonment became an occasion for him to witness to the truth. When a princess, along with many young court ladies, came to mock, and the princess said in horror at Guido's heavy chains, "My God, Mr. de Brès, I don't see how you can eat, drink, or sleep that way. I think I would die of fear, if I were in your place," Guido responded: "My lady, the good cause for which I suffer and the good conscience God has given me make my bread sweeter and my sleep sounder than those of my persecutors." And, then, still responding to the princess, "It is guilt that makes a chain heavy. Innocence makes my chains light. I glory in them as my badges of honor."

Soon Guido was transferred to Valenciennes and thrown into a dark, cold, damp, rat-infested dungeon known as The Black Hole. In spite of the cold, the hunger, the horror of this hole, Guido wrote a tract on the Lord's Supper and letters to his friends, his aged mother, and his wife. A letter to his wife is an especially moving testimony of his faith.

My dear and well-beloved wife in our Lord Jesus.
Your grief and anguish are the cause of my writing you this letter. I most earnestly pray you not to be grieved beyond measure . . . . We knew when we married that we might not have many years together, and the Lord has graciously given us seven. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he could easily have caused it to be so. But such was not his pleasure. Let his good will be done . . . . Moreover, consider that I have not fallen into the hands of my enemies by chance, but by the providence of God . . . . All these considerations have made my heart glad and peaceful, and I pray you, my dear and faithful companion, to be glad with me, and to thank the good God for what he is doing, for he does nothing but what is altogether good and right . . . . I pray you then to be comforted in the Lord, to commit yourself and your affairs to him, he is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless, and he will never leave nor forsake you . . . .
Good-bye, Catherine, my well-beloved! I pray my God to comfort you, and give you resignation to his holy will. Your faithful husband, Guido de Brès.

Guido was publicly hanged on May 31, 1567 at the age of 47. He was pushed off the ladder while comforting the crowd which had gathered and urging them to faithfulness to the Scriptures. His body was left hanging the rest of the day and buried in a shallow grave where dogs and wild animals dug it up and consumed it.

- from www.prca.org

Romans 8:35-39 reads...
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That pretty much covers everything... Nothing can separate us (Christians) from God's love - whatever befalls us; even if we should die, it is God's will - and for good, so we have nothing to worry about.

A Burden in Your Hands

...is the name of a song by Christian band Underoath.  They're pretty alternative; not everybody's cup of tea, but the lyrics for this song about abortion that they have written, A Burden in Your Hands - are so true.

Confusing and scared
there is a decision made with this choice
a child has to pay
She puts it's life in her hands,
and then she destroys it's only chance to become someone in life
You should of thought about the baby before you had sex,
because you have destroyed a gift from God
You kill,
you destroyed
Never will this baby be able to grow up or show it's love
You'll never hear it say I love you, I love you
God does not give you the privilege to carry a child for nothing
When you kill,
you destroy that child's dreams and hopes
How innocent a baby is... how can you put it to death?
What if you were aborted...
you could of never had life
And now you make a choice to take this child's life
because it is a burden in your hands
A burden in your hands
Destroyed out of convenience
They put an end to your life
because you're too big a burden
and one that they can not have
So they take your life before your first breath
When will it stop, the killings continue
Babies die everyday because of a pro-choice made
Helpless and innocent they are put to death
Then why did the parents choose to plant a seed and then destroy it?
Pray for the people who are killing the kids of tomorrow
How desperately they need Jesus Christ in their hearts
So they take your life
because you're a burden in their hands
Destroyed out of convenience
They put a end to you life
because you're too big a burden and one that they cannot have
So they take your life before your first breath,
so they take your life before your first breath.

Yes, it's hard-hitting, uncompromising and confrontational.  But this should be no surprise, seeing as it is a song about the biggest holocaust of all time; the silent holocaust which dwarfs all the other genocides and natural disasters in the history of the World, put together.