Josie Pagani (Labour candidate for Rangitikei) has an op ed in the Herald where she says:

We were seen as looking backwards, not forwards. We didn’t sound aspirational, we sounded miserable. We were turning up on people’s doorsteps telling them their lives were gloomy. And anyone who has ever been poor knows the last thing you want is someone telling you your life is crap.

The hardest week to door-knock was when we were telling people – who had just come home from a day’s work earning the minimum wage – that it was a great idea to extend their Working for Families tax credit to beneficiaries. “So what’s the point of working my guts out all week while someone sitting at home on the dole gets the same tax credit as me?”

Indeed. Their worst policy of 2011.

There’s a reason we’re called “Labour”: We have always represented people who work. If you work hard you should earn enough to pay the bills, save a bit and enjoy the holidays with your family. If you have a great idea to build a business and work really hard, a Labour government will back you to be world class. It’s not just about dividing the economic pie fairly, it’s about increasing the size of the pie so everyone can get their piece.

Pretty sensible stuff. But Danyl at Dim Post says:

Growing the pie. David Shearer used the same cliche in his first speech to Parliament. Here’s my question: why are Labour still using ACT Party rhetoric about the panacea of economic growth, when all our economic statistics, social indicators and lived experience over the past thirty years tell us that the benefits of ‘growing the pie’ now aggregate to a  small number of high-net worth individuals? The rest of us stay where we are, or go backwards. …

For a few years during the mid 2000s it felt like we were going forwards – but that was just a bubble fueled by overseas debt. During this time Helen Clark constantly resorted to the tired old Kennedy/Sorenson trope that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’. But this just isn’t an accurate way to think about economic growth. It may, eventually lift general living standards over a long period of time, but it always involves an element of ‘creative destruction’.

Danyl joins the ranks of left wing bloggers giving David Shearer appalling advice.

We had a party in New Zealand that used to say what Danyl said. They said economic growth is not as good as people make it out to be. They said we should not grow the pie as this exploits limited resources. They were the Green Party and tended to get 5% to 6% of the vote.

Then in 2011 they dropped the socialist dogma, and started talking about green growth, and how a vote for the Greens is a vote to get richer (implying more growth). And they broke through 10% for the first time.

Danyl thinks arguing in favour of economic growth is National/ACT dogma. It also happens to be the dogma of basically every major centre-left party in the developed world, plus pretty much all of Asia except North Korea and maybe Burma.

So my advice to David Shearer is not to start campaigning against economic growth. Well not unless he wants to beat Phil Goff’s 85 year low in the vote for Labour.

At Stuff I blog on the u-turn by the Chch City Council on burial fees:

Someone at the very beginning should have said, wait how much money are we talking about here? $350 x 22 people is around $7,000. In the context of total Council expenditure that is petty cash. How could anyone – whether they be staff or elected, think that for $7,000 you should risk offending the families of those who died in the earthquake.

Sanity eventually prevailed, and Mayor Bob Parker announced the fees will be waived, as promised. It is better late than never, but some damage has been done. This should have been elevated to the Mayor when it first emerged – not after it hits the media.

I also talk about a similar issue back in the late 90s, with the then National Government.

Labour activist Patrick Leyland blogged on Labour’s front bench and how it has only two women, comparing it to previous front benches. His conclusion was the number of women is much the same as it was in the past.

However the Women’s Vice-President of Labour, Kate Sutton, commented:

This is meaningless Patrick. Why don’t you have a look at the last time we didn’t have a woman at number 1 or 2? People can explain their way out of any stats but this front bench is worse for women full stop.

Now that is a damning comment from a party vice-president on their front bench.

Another activist notes:

This is a sad situation, that’s why many Labour women are so unhappy about this recently leadership selection process. It is important for the current leadership team to recognize this issue and reconcile with the general Labour Party membership.

Sounds wide-spread.

One commenter effectively suggested that Jacinda Ardern should be moved from No 4 to No 3, ranking her ahead of Finance Spokesperson David Parker.

A contrary view is given by Meryn:

This is very interesting Patrick. As a woman I am more interested in the content of someone’s beliefs and their ability to sell, then deliver a progressive set of policies to the electorate rather than whether they have a penis or a vagina.

Indeed. I think diversity is useful, but must be secondary to beliefs and ability.

Suri says:

I think you’d be interested to know that many women in the party have directed their disappointment to the caucus. Not one has received a reply back yet.

This has obviously brought to the surface considerable underlying tensions.

In my column at the NZ Herald. I start by saying:

The industrial action at the Ports of Auckland has reached the point, when a compromise solution is about as likely as there being a compromise solution over the Falkland Islands.

Instead, like the Falkland Islands, there will be a war, and there will be a winner and a loser. There will also be the significant possibility of casualties from other parties.

The two combatants are the Ports of Auckland (POAL) management team led by Field Marshall Toby Gibson and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) led by Generalissimus Garry Parsloe.

The stakes are high for both sides. The losing side will be humiliated and powerless.

I also look at who else faces being dragged onto this war.

Whale has this photo sent in by a reader. MUNZ receives $285,000 rent for space in their building.It is unknown how much comes from the electorate office rental.

MUNZ only has 2,580 members today. Doing pretty well to own their own building. Of course it helps if you have Labour MPs having the taxpayer pay rent on their behalf.

I’m generally against electorate offices being rented from political parties, or people or groups affiliated to a political party. A total ban is difficult as some MPs have purchased an electorate office so that they can secure the location, and in fact rent them back at well below market rentals.

However despite their good intentions, I think it is time to put in place a ban, so that unions and parties do not get this backdoor funding. The latest review of parliamentary spending recommended:

That MPs entering Parliament from the next general election not be able to receive public funding for out-of-Parliament offices owned by an MP or an interested party. The funding for premises owned directly or indirectly by current MPs should be grand-parented while the MP continues in Parliament.

MUNZ is affiliated to the Labour Party and should be seen as an interested party.

Another alternative to a ban, is my suggestion to have the rent set at say 66% or 75% of the market rate, so that the party or union or MP is not seen to be benefiting from the arrangement.

Stuff reports:

The mother of a 16-year-old boy charged with a vicious sexual attack on a 5-year-old girl at a Turangi campground says she has been hounded from her home.

That should not happen, but ….

The woman yesterday said her family had been abused and had objects thrown at their house, she believed her son was merely “a suspect” and not the monster portrayed by media.

However, just moments later it was indicated, in court, that the youngster would likely plead guilty to the charges.

Saying he is just a suspect, at the same time as he is pleading guilty, is not going to go down well with locals. Contrition would go down better.

The brutality of the teen’s alleged attack on the daughter of European tourists at Club Habitat Holiday Park drew a vitriolic crowd to his first court appearance two weeks ago, but his mother yesterday stressed “he isn’t like that”.

Well, how many mothers have said that.

The Waikato Times has obtained photos of the 16-year-old drinking alcohol with friends and family and one picture with him expressing an anti-police message, from social networking site Facebook.

I’ve seen those photos also. In case he pleaded not guilty, I had refrained from mentioning them. But now he has indicated a guilty plea I can say the photos make him look exactly like someone who would commit serious crimes.

But the teen – who is charged with rape, burglary and sexual violation causing grievous bodily harm – was tidily dressed for yesterday’s appearance in the Taupo Youth Court.

I have no doubt he looked different to these photos.

He stood silently, with his head down. About a dozen supporters were present in court, and his mother read to the court a karakia he had written.

Through the prayer he asked God for forgiveness and to make him a “man without hate, anger and stress”.

I’m sorry. Call me cynical, but I seriously doubt he wrote that prayer.

The Dom Post reports:

Judges have clocked up more than $18 million on travel and accommodation over the past three years, including five overseas trips where Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias took along husband and business tycoon Hugh Fletcher at taxpayers’ expense.

Mr Fletcher, whose family’s wealth was estimated at $70m last year, accompanied Dame Sian to the Caribbean Turks and Caicos islands in 2009-10 for a Commonwealth Magistrates Judges Association conference. That year, he also accompanied her to the United States, London and Melbourne.

Judges must pay personally for spousal travel, except where the chief justice attends in a representative capacity and is accompanied by her spouse.

The fact Hugh Fletcher is wealthy is beside the point.

If the Governor-General travels overseas, do we expect his wife to pay her own travel bills if she attends also? Of course not.

One could legitimately question whether the total number of trips taken is prudent, but I think we look petty if we question whether the spouse of the Chief Justice should have to pay for their own travel, when accompanying them on official duties.

And as for the $18m spent over three years, few would note this part:

Mr Pigou said most domestic claims related to circuit work by some 170 judges who travel around New Zealand.

I mean, we could have all court sittings in major cities only, so no Judges need to travel. But the many witnesses, victims, and defendants would be disadvantaged then.

Over the three years till June 2011, judges of the High Court, Supreme Court and Appeal Court spent $5.2m on domestic air travel and accommodation (including allowances), car rentals, taxis and mileage. Their international travel bill was $281,000.

District court judges spent $8.3m on domestic travel costs and $404,000 on international travel.

The amount of international travel is a small proportion of the overall travel bill.

The talk in the UK is of when the vote on Scottish independence should be. Amusingly the UK Conservative Government wants it early and a straight up and down vote, while the Scottish SNP Government wants it in 2014 and a third option of great devolution. I suspect this is because they are realising what full independence may cost.

Losing Scotland would be great for the Conservative Party. The House of Commons is currently:

• Conservative 305
• Labour 255
• Lib Dems 57
• Others 33
• Total 650

You need 326 to govern.

59 seats are in Scotland. Remove them and you need 296 to govern. And the House of Commons would be:

• Conservative 304
• Labour 214
• Lib Dems 46
• Others 27
• Total 591

So the Conservatives would then have an absolute majority in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Scotland as an independent country would presumably not be able to keep the pound, and would adopt the Euro instead. Can’t see that being too popular.

That is why I suspect the SNP don’t want full independence anymore – it would cost too much. They want all the powers of independence, but none of the responsibility.

Cameron should stay firm and insist on a straight up and down vote.

ABC reports:

For the second time in as many weeks, the U.S. military has rescued distressed Iranian sailors, despite the extremely high tensions between the two nations.

According to the Navy’s account, at about 3 a.m. local time an American Coast Guard patrol boat in the north Persian Gulf was hailed by flares and flashlights from an Iranian cargo ship whose engine room was flooding. Six Iranians were rescued from the ship, fed halal meals in accordance with Islamic law, and later taken to shore.

I suspect if the situation was reverse the rescued sailors would be accused of being spies, put in jail, given a mock trial, and sentenced to die.

Last week, the U.S. Navy rescued more than a dozen Iranian sailors who had been held hostage by pirates in the Arabian Sea for weeks. American sailors on a “visit, board, search and seizure team” were able to free the sailors and take 15 suspected pirates into custody without incident on Jan. 5, the Navy said.

Not bad for the Great Satan.

Both rescues come in the midst of an especially tense time between the U.S. and Iran. Most recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Monday Iran has been enriching uranium in a highly-protected underground bunker as part of the nation’s nuclear program — a move the U.S. State Department said was a “further escalation of their ongoing violations with regard to their nuclear obligations.”

Over the weekend, an Iranian court handed down a death sentence to an American former Marine accused of spying for the CIA in Tehran. Both the U.S. government and the 28-year-old’s family have repeatedly called the Iranian allegations “fabrications.”

One day Iran will be free.

NIWA have released:

The nation-wide average temperature for 2011 was 12.8°C, 0.3°C above the 1971–2000 annual average, using NIWA’s seven-station temperature series which begins in 1909.  2011 was the 17th warmest year since 1909, based on this 7-station series.

17th warmest. Some extremes though:

The highest recorded extreme temperature of the year (41.3°C) occurred at Timaru on 6 February (a new all-time high temperature record in the area).

Ouch. Also of interest is how each month compared to the norm for that month:

• Jan +0.3
• Feb +0.7
• Mar +0.0
• Apr -0.4
• May +2.2
• Jun +1.5
• Jul +0.1
• Aug -0.5
• Sep -0.7
• Oct +0.3
• Nov -0.2
• Dec +0.2

May was a scorcher.

The highest mean temp was 16.7 in Leigh and lowest was 7.6 at the Chateau, Mt Ruapehu.

Most rainfall was 9.49m at Cropp River and least was 0.39m at Clyde.

Nelson had the most sunshine with 2487 hours (6.8 hours a day) and Franz Josef the least at 1598 hours (4.4 hours a day).

Denis Welch blogs:

The Labour Party’s silence on the Ports of Auckland dispute is getting louder. Robert Winter has drawn attention to this in an excellent post: he says the dispute has become, potentially, the first defining moment for Labour under the new leadership of David Shearer, and they have to ‘step up and come out swinging on this issue.’

We wish. What is already remarkable about the dispute is how depoliticized it is, with not just Labour but all political parties keeping well clear of it. It’s a far cry from the days when ministers personally intervened in industrial action and Labour politicians sided with striking workers, even joining them on the picket line.

Oh I would love to see Labour MPs out on the wharfie picket line. That would be the best Xmas present ever.

But unless David Shearer is a moron, he will not be getting involved in this industrial dispute – especially as public support for the wharfies is confined to the UNITE union and the hard left.

When Denis Welch and Robert Winter urge David Shearer to get involved as a test of his leadership, they are not advocating in the best interests of the Labour Party – they are advocating for their views (nothing wrong with that) which are far to the left of Labour.

I don’t know if anyone has approached Shearer for comment or asked, um, wait a minute, who is Labour’s spokesperson on labour issues? I just looked it up: it’s Darien Fenton. Who knew? She may well be intensely credible on industrial relations but I don’t believe we’ve heard from her yet on the ports dispute.

I presume they have sedated Darien to stop her joining the picket line 🙂

The only Labourish public figure to even put a fingertip over the trenches so far is Auckland mayor Len Brown, and he has come down on the woolly side of woofterish by declaring resoundingly that he supports both sides.

There is an unhappy echo there of Walter Nash’s infamous response to the 1951 waterfront dispute when he was Labour’s leader: asked whether he supported the watersiders he said he was neither for nor against them. I have a horrible feeling that Shearer, if he ever does comment, will say much the same thing.

Shearer should choose his words more carefully than Brown, but he absolutely should not come out swinging for the Maritime Union. It would just pigeon hole him as captive to the unions which fund the Labour Party (MUNZ is one of them). Only 25% of NZers voted for Labour. I suspect not even a majority of those 25% have sympathy for militant industrial action from a union representing what must be the most highly paid unskilled jobs in New Zealand.

At the most you might get Shearer saying that he is against contracting out (as this is existing Labour policy), and wants both sides to reach a settlement. But he should resist all efforts to get him involved. He is the leader of the parliamentary labour party and of the opposition – he is not a union spokesman. Clark would have never got involved, and Shearer shouldn’t either.

Talking of MPs with a view though, a good column from Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross. He notes:

Every Aucklander has a stake in the Ports of Auckland. It is not a privately owned company. Nor is it listed on any stock exchange. Each and every share in the company is owned by the Auckland Council on behalf of 1.4 million Auckland residents and ratepayers. The destruction in value in one of our city’s largest public assets is alarming and has to be of concern to us all. …

But numbers aside, it is obvious that losing the trade of New Zealand’s largest company, only a month after losing the business of one of the worlds largest shipping lines, has to be a wakeup call. Yet sadly for the Maritime Union, it isn’t. Sadly for port workers and Aucklanders alike, the Maritime Union continues to be unphased.

This isn’t a story of a greedy corporate hammering the little guy. This isn’t a story of a David versus Goliath battle where workers are being ripped off or paid a pittance. Few could call poverty on an average annual wage for a wharfie understood to be north of $90,000, with a proposed 10 percent hourly rate increase and performance bonuses of up to 20 percent, sitting on the table. To the average person on the street, the latest Ports of Auckland offer to the Union would almost seem generous.

It would be most interesting if the Herald (or someone) did a poll to ascertain the public’s views on the stand off.

The trade union movement evolved through a desire for workers to band together to protect their common interests. This is not a dishonourable goal. But when a union loses sight of its members long term interests and cavalier negotiating tactics start to backfire, the union itself begins putting its own member’s livelihoods at risk.

Unions still occupy a privileged position in New Zealand’s employment law; a relic of the last Labour administration which has not seen significant overhaul for some years. Few non-government organisations can boast clauses in legislation specifically designed for their benefit. Despite only 18 percent of the nation’s workforce being unionised, trade unions can look to whole sections of the Employment Relations Act written exclusively to aid union survival through legislative advantage.

Unions do get many major legislative advantages. These should be reviewed. Take just one – why should employers act as unpaid fee collection agents for unions?

I say unions should be like any other incorporated society – let them invoice their members directly for their membership fees.

UPDATE: It seems Labour Whip Darien Fenton has been spotted on the picket line. No surprise, but will we see other Labour MPs join her?

Those of us who were born before the cold war ended remember the Doomsday Clock. Run by the board of directors of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, it was a symbol of how close the world was to global thermonuclear war, and possible extinction.

In that context, it was a very useful thing. It started at seven minutes to midnight in 1947 as the cold war got underway. In 1963 and 1972 it got back to 12 minutes to midnight, while in 1953 it set a record of two minutes to midnight.

Radio NZ report:

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end, says it is now five minutes to midnight.

The last time the clock was changed, in 2010, the scientists moved it back a minute on hopes of global nuclear cooperation and the election of United States president Barack Obama, AFP reports.

Moving it purely on the basis of whom got elected was a pretty stupid thing to do. But even stupider is saying it is now five minutes to midnight – closer to midnight than in 1988 before the Soviet empire crumbles.

Realistically there is now almost no tangible chance of global nuclear war. The clock should probably be set at 11.30 pm or even 11 pm. But I guess they needed to find a way to remain relevant, rather than just celebrate the end of the cold war.

However, the latest decision – based on global uncertainty over how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons, climate change, and a growing tendency to reject science when it comes to major world concerns – pushes it back to where it was in 2007.

Climate change? Look I have no problems if a group of climate change scientists want to have their own climate doomsday clock, but to have the atomic scientists now using the doomsday clock to include climate change is just rather pathetic.

I recall seeing the movie The Day After in 1983. Polls at the time showed over 50% of people my age expected the world to end in our lifetimes. The threat of global nuclear war was very real. Today, it is absolutely a different atmosphere. Sure there are possibility of nuclear terrorism etc, but not the scenario where hundreds of cities are wiped out and a nuclear winter.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists should celebrate that the cold war is over, that the good guys won, and that global nuclear war is no longer a significant threat, and bury the doomsday clock in history.

Inventory2 has blogged at Keeping Stock the comment left on another blog by Ports of Auckland Ltd relating to the earnings for stevedores or wharfies. The key points are:

• average remuneration for a full-time stevedore $91,480
• average remuneration for a part-time (guaranteed 24 hrs a week) stevedore $65,518
• 53% of FT stevedores earned over $80,000 and 28% over $100,000
• The highest annual remuneration was $122,000
• Stevedores also get 15 days sick leave per annum (triple the minimum) accumulating to 45 days (two months if continuous) and five weeks annual leave
• All training for stevedore tasks is done in-house, paid for by the company
• Stevedores who earned the average $91,000 worked an average of 43 hours a week, or 49 hours a week if you factor in leave.
• 35% of hours paid are for when there is no work to be done, so those 43 paid hours, on average only 28 hours are actually worked.
• This means the effective pay per hour worked is an average of $62.50 per hour ($91,000/52/28).
• At Port of Tauranga which has an 80% labour utilisation rate, stevedores get paid from when the ship arrives to when it leaves. At Auckland they get paid in eight hour blocks, even if the ship is only there for two hours.
• These figures are not inflated by redundancy payments

Incidentially POAL, in response to a question about how Cactus Kate had these figures, revealed that she simply e-mailed and asked for them.

This highlights for me the value of blogging. Because Kate took the time to send a simple e-mail, now most New Zealanders know about the average pay of wharfies in Auckland, as the figure has been widely reported since she blogged it.

I have to say $62.50 an hour is a pretty good pay rate for a job where all training is done on the job – no qualifications or skills needed. One can see why the union is fighting so hard to keep a system where you get paid for 43 hours a week, despite there being only 28 hours of work. It forces POAL to hire more people than they really need, and ironically penalise POAL for being efficient. If they turn a ship around more quickly (say by investing in better cranes), they still have to pay staff for eight hours work.

What I would do if I was a clever stevedore is offer POAL a contract where if they finish a ship early, they get paid a bonus, or a higher hourly rate. That way they both win.

As expected Mitt Romney has won New Hampshire. This was very much expected as he was a neighbouring Governor. What is more interesting is the order of the others and what may happen in South Carolina, which votes next.

AP reports on 52% of the votes:

1. Romney 37%
2. Paul 23%
3. Huntsman 17%
4. Gingrich 10%
5. Santorum 10%

Romney leads in the polls for South Caroline and Florida. But Gingrich is not far behind in Florida, and will be out for blood.

Went to see the Tintin movie last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The plot does deviate quite a bit from the book or books, but that didn’t matter to me. When it comes to Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter I object to plot changes in film versions – but with Tintin it didn’t matter as it is really about the wonderful characters.

Tintin is the name of the lead, but as with the books not the real star. That is a toss up between Caption Haddock and Snowy.

They made good use of 3D, and had some great action sequences. The chase sequence with the bird (and the papers) was very well done. My favourite though was the swordfight with the cranes.

Snowy adds the same comic tough as in the books. His sandwich tug or war with the rat is good fun, but most of all I love how he intimidates the much larger guard dog into becoming his plaything.

If you are a Tintin fan, go see the movie.

Tintin and Asterix were the two series of books I grew up on the most. We had every book, and could read them often. Every kid should have them.

I just hope that one day someone can make just as good an Asterix movie. The ones to date have been pretty crap.

Fran O’Sullivan writes in the NZ Herald:

It seems pretty obvious that the ports company has been determined to ensure productivity at its downtown Waitemata Harbour operations is markedly increased. Particularly in the vital area of crane productivity, where rival Port of Tauranga sub-contracts its container stevedoring work and boasts a superior performance to its Auckland competitor.

If the Maritime Union didn’t see this one coming, then they haven’t been paying much attention to the Ministry of Transport report on container productivity at New Zealand ports. Nor has the union been paying attention to the Productivity Commission which estimates exporters and importers spend upwards of $5 billion a year on freight and has forecasted annual trade could be boosted by $1.25 billion if transport costs were shaved by 10 per cent. There is a national interest issue at stake here.

$1.25b if costs are down 10%. The Ports of Auckland are definitely working in the national interest if they can make themselves more efficient.

I note the Port of Tauranga sub-contracts its stevedoring work out. Maybe that sub-contractor could apply to do the work for Ports of Auckland also?

The Herald has an editorial on the Rena. It is generally fair and balanced. The conclusion:

But quibbles after the fact do not alter the impression that after a slow start, the response has been effective. If the Rena has been our worst maritime environmental disaster, it could have been much worse.

But I quibble over one aspect:

That plan, as far as it goes, was strikingly successful this time. Though countless seabirds perished from the slick, the beaches were cleaned so quickly and efficiently that they were safe for swimming, fishing and other activities before Christmas.

Countless? They have in fact been counted and it is around 2,000.

Incidentally possums and other predators kill around 500,000 birds a week in New Zealand. They just do it without cameras around generally!

Stuff reports:

A hopeful groom-to-be suffered the most public of rejections when his proposal at a basketball game was blocked in front of hundreds of fans.

The young man got down on one knee at the UCLA game in California and pulled out a ring live on the stadium’s “mistletoe cam” just before Christmas.

“I knew I was going to do this the first day I met you, so I know this is going to sound corny but … will you marry me?” he said.

But rather than a happy yes, the young woman shook her head.

Her boyfriend could only watch in horror as she grabbed her bag and left the area to jeers from the crowd.

In politics there is a saying, that you should never ask a question that you do not already know the answer to.

I think the same maxim should apply to marriage proposals – or at least public marriage proposals.

A successful public marriage proposal can be sweet and endearing and a memory to last a lifetime. But you should not be doing it unless you are absolutely sure what the answer will be.

Peter Cresswell blogs:

Ron Paul is not a libertarian. He

• rejects the Jeffersonian principle of a “wall of separation” between religion and government;
• is anti-immigration (“to the right of most Republicans” says Vodka Pundit Steve Green);
• is anti-abortion (Paul describes “the rights of unborn people” [sic] as “the greatest moral issue of our time,” and “abortion on demand” as “the ultimate State tyranny”);
• “plays footsie” with racists and kooks;
• is a hypocritical supporter of pork-barrel earmarks for his own congressional district;
• is opposed to free-trade agreements (like NAFTA); and
• is appallingly “blame-America-first” on  foreign policy.

I don’t count his writings of 20 years ago too much against him, or even his foreign policy. I even understand his earmark rationale. And even libertarians disagree on abortion. The lack of commitment to religion and state being separate, the opposition to immigration and opposition to free trade agreements (he says note pure enough, but perfect is the enemy of good) is what I regard as the biggest marks against him.

PC says:

In short, then, and to repeat, he is not a libertarian: he is a “states-rights” religious conservative, with all the intellectual confusion that implies …

That he can masquerade as a friend to freedom at all demonstrates how far the intellectual battle for freedom still needs to travel.

Because the harsh fact about Ron Paul is that on the few occasions he takes off the tinfoil hat and talks Austrian he’s damn good. But when he’s wearing the tinfoil headwear, as he does the rest of the time, he’s rotten.

He is damn good on most economic issues. He is not a viable candidate for President in 2012 though, at the age of 77. I think it is good he flies the flag on many issues.

I was chatting to someone today about how it would be fun if the Republicans had no one get a majority and it was a brokered convention!

In my blog at Stuff I propose:

New Zealand should ask for the US to commit to a law change that any copyrighted material released in the US for sale, can also be immediately sold (or re-sold) to New Zealand consumers.

So if a US studio releases an episode on iTunes for 99c the day after it is broadcast in the US, then no more blocking New Zealanders from being able to buy it.

Such a law change would probably do more to reduce infringing file-sharing of TV shows, than any amount of punitive measures.

d