Cina has one of the strictest censorship regimes in the world but little by little information about their dodgy ratbags still seeps out:

Visitors from mainland China climb the narrow stairs to a cramped room here filled with forbidden delights: shelves of scandal-packed exposés about their Communist Party masters.

The People’s Recreation Community bookstore and several others on Hong Kong’s teeming shopping streets specialize in selling books and magazines banned by the Chinese government, mostly for their luridly damning accounts of party leaders, past and present. And at a time when many Chinese citizens smolder with distrust of their leaders, business is thriving.  Read more »

Teacher Unions are the same the world over. They all believe that their education sectors are “national treasures” despite results and empirical evidence to the contrary.

Every now and then a politician comes along to challenge them and they become public enemy number one for daring to challenge the status quo.

Michael Gove was ridiculed by the president of the National Association of Head Teachers, who compared him to a hyperactive personal trainer.

“At times it feels as though we are at the whim of some kind of fanatical personal trainer, constantly urging us all to go faster, faster, higher and higher on a constant treadmill,” Bernadette Hunter told delegates attending the organisation’s annual conference in Birmingham.  Read more »

Cactus Kate writes about the pay equity battle and new evidence that women are letting their own side down.

She is at her cutting best:

Finally a decent piece on how professional women shirk their responsibilities in the workforce.

Find it hard to get a medical appointment? Especially in a tax payer funded area of medicine.  Yes, well this has been building for years.  A bit like female legal partners who only work three days a week.  Who wants to employ someone who will not answer your emergency call on a Wednesday?  I want to know what they do for those two days off.  Play golf? Do their husband’s laundry?   Read more »

The lunatic left all promote a ‘Robin Hood’ tax, aka a Tobin Tax or Financial Transactions Tax. Matt McCarten, himself a stranger to paying tax, even promoted it in the Herald on Sunday.

The problem with such a tax is that it doesn’t work, and it has been tried before with disastrous consequences..

James Tobin, a Nobel-prize-winning economist and disciple of Keynes, first proposed the idea of a global transactions tax—on foreign exchange—in 1972. This newspaper has regularly criticised it on two counts: it would be unworkable unless all governments signed up to it (and perhaps even if they did); and a levy would harm the liquidity of financial markets, making asset prices more volatile. Now there is a third, equally valid objection: that a Tobin tax is a poor solution to the problems in banking—too much leverage, too little care taken in assessing risks and banks that are deemed too big to fail.  Read more »

Public anger is growing against Len Brown and his endless ratepayer funded spin.

A public meeting of about 500 people has told the Auckland Council to rethink its intensification plans for the city, start listening to communities and stop spinning.

The biggest display of opposition to the council’s plans saw hundreds of people fill the Takapuna Grammar School hall yesterday calling for a rethink on a new planning rulebook for the city – or Unitary Plan.  Read more »

I see the Herald has an article that quotes Bernard Hickey and other commentators where they are surprised that banks are offering freebies for people to sign up new loans – “buying your business with your money”.

Flat-screen televisions, cash for groceries and even iPads – banks are competing to offer more attractive prizes to sweeten home loan deals as higher interest rates are forecast.

But commentators warn the prizes should be viewed only as a bonus once a loan has been settled.

One says the giveaways are “essentially buying your business with your money”.

With little separating their advertised fixed mortgage rates, banks are dangling “free” giveaways to lure prospective customers from rival banks.

Oh how terrible…

Dr Claire Matthews, of Massey University’s centre for banking studies, said people should study the entire home loan deal – including fees, terms and conditions – before being tempted by cash or giveaways.

“It might be that if you’ve got two banks that are almost identical, and one is offering a 52-inch television, then, hey, you might as well go for the television as well.

“But if somebody is offering a better deal, despite the 52-inch television you may not be better off.”

Economic commentator Bernard Hickey said similar giveaways were seen during the 2002-2007 property boom.

“But then, the banks tended to simply use price as their main way to win market-share. This time, they are being a bit more cautious about that, mainly because they want to preserve their profit margins.

The cost of such incentives were often simply added on to the mortgage, Mr Hickey said.

“What they are doing with these offers, is essentially buying your business with your money.”

And what about the Herald? They offer free stuff to win subscribers…plus their reader promotions…they even use a call centre to beg people to stay with free newspapers.

What a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites.

Planning Parrot says:

Who will hold Auckland Council Officers accountable for breaking the law?

Auckland Council is like a citizen. It is required to adhere to the same laws that govern our nation and every person in it.

Whilst Council is afforded certain rights and functions through legislation that empower it, that power is not unlimited.

In fact it is very limited.

Those limitations are the essential boundaries specifically created in law to protect people and property from Council. In doing this the law ensures that Councils and their delegates (council officers) are bound in their duties.

Without which we would experience law-less Councils and authoritarianism.

So what happens to Councils and their officers when they break the law?  Read more »

New evidence suggests that marijuana maybe popular because it helps people cope with the pain of loneliness.

Why smoke marijuana? Users would probably reply that numbed-out bliss is its own reward. But if smoothing out the harsh edges of reality is your goal, what bruises are you attempting to avoid?

Newly published research suggests that, at least for some, the answer is: The intense discomfort of social exclusion.

“Marijuana has been used to treat physical pain,” reports a research team led by University of Kentucky psychologist Timothy Deckman, “and the current findings suggest it may also reduce emotional pain.”

Interesting. Got me fascinated.

[D]ata on 5,631 Americans, who reported their level of loneliness, described their marijuana usage (if any), and assessed their mental health and feelings of self-worth. Not surprisingly, the researchers found a relationship between loneliness and feelings of self-worth, but it was significantly weaker for regular pot smokers.

“Marijuana use buffered the lonely from both negative self-worth and poor mental health,” the researchers write.

Another experiment, featuring 537 people, found those who were experiencing social pain were less likely to have suffered a major depression in the past year if they smoked pot relatively frequently.

Still another experiment, featuring 225 people, used the computer game Cyberball to create an immediate experience of social exclusion. Half the participants in the three-person game received the ball twice early on, and then never again during the course of the game. They then reacted to a series of statements designed to assess whether their need for self-esteem and belonging felt threatened—statements such as, “I had the feeling that the other players did not like me.”

The results: Those who smoked marijuana relatively frequently felt less threatened than those who smoked it less frequently, or not at all.

I’m very interested on the effect mitigating loneliness caused by severe depression.

NSW is moving to ban unvaccinated kids from schools and child care facilities.

Both of my kids were un-vaccinated…for a couple of reasons and none of it hippy dippy shit. Simply they were both highly allergic to egg white and other substances. No doctor, either GP or at the hospital was prepared to put their signature on a piece of paper to say it would be ok. In fact they insisted if we were to vaccinate at all that it MUST be done in a hospital under supervision.

They have since grown out of their allergies…but my daughter still has to be careful with egg-white.

I’m not sure a ban will work though.

A move to ban unvaccinated kids from NSW preschools and childcare centres isn’t about discriminating against the children of vaccine refusers, the state opposition says.

Labor leader John Robertson will introduce amendments to the public health act which would give early childhood centres the right to refuse kids who haven’t had their shots.

The move comes amid concern about high rates of unvaccinated children in some parts of NSW as well as the emergence of so-called ”anti-vaxxers” who refuse vaccination.

Some parts of NSW had lower vaccination rates than Rwanda, Mr Robertson said.

Read more »