Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article You can always count on the Herald to provide some good spam but yesterday they have outdone themselves by providing Front Page spam for us. Drink driving: why the law must change A test in which a Weekend Herald [...]

Apparently there is a war on obesity. Trouble is, there does not seemed to be a well-defined enemy in this war. Is it the fast food industry? Perhaps it is the actual fat in foods? Maybe it is the obese person themselves? Or their wicked, neglectful parents? Or perhaps it is carbohydrates, not fats, that [...]

I’m willing to bet that there was a nervous tinge to the laughter when John Key made his joke about being on the Tuhoe “menu”. Everyone there would have instantly spotted that it was a very politically incorrect remark, for a Prime Minister. True to form, the left wing blogs have spent the day making [...]

There is no doubt which side of the world-view divide the Herald on Sunday sits. They report: Sacked for teaching King Lear Shakespearean tragedy has become high farce, after a Christian high school sacked a teacher for using a “morally defiling” King Lear text in class. Suzette Martin, 40, was sacked from the private Westmount School [...]

Gordon Brown’s gaffe is the main news in the UK. I notice a curious silence in the Left-wing blogosphere about it, except for the odious No Right Turn who thinks Brown was justified in calling Gillian Duffy (66) a bigot. Malcolm goes one further and uses the term “Bigoted Racist” for good measure. Apparently saying [...]

The Political Correctness Nazis are attempting to ban Tintin again. In faint mitigation, the perpetrator of the latest banning attempt is at least congolese and is objecting to the admittedly absurd racial stereotypes in Tintin in the Congo, probably the worst of the Tintin books (in my opinion). This is not the first time this [...]

Though many people are highly critical of the columns of Garth George, I often find that, past the general curmudgeonly nature of his columns, he often makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately, he tends to couch his points in a fashion designed to bring out the worst in the blogosphere. It is not simply [...]

In September 2008 I wrote this: Unfortunately, what this [the repeal of section 59] does to parents is place them in a position of having no clear idea what is an acceptable smack. Worse still, it allows children to threaten their parents, thereby seriously reducing their authority, even if the child has no intention of [...]

I support strong measures to persuade people to stop smoking. It is a nasty habit with extremely serious health consequences. But I have to say that I find it impossible to approve of the current drive to ban smoking in most outdoor places. Make no mistake, I hate it when I’m sitting at the beach, [...]

I see John Minto is up to his old tricks again. He has organised a “protest” of less than a dozen people to demonstrate outside of the ASB Classic tennis tournament. Only this was not a peaceful protest, this was a Minto special. Armed with megaphones, they proceeded to make unmitigated nuisances of themselves by [...]