The Government has been taking a lot of heat over the last few weeks and the hits just keep on coming. Following the complaint to police over Sky City's 'anonymous' donation to John Banks' mayoralty complaint, it now appears John Banks received $50,000 from Kim Dotcom anonymously despite knowing about it, which doesn't quite make sense. This could ultimately lead to his resignation and the end of the ACT party, although this is unlikely to affect the Government's majority. Read the full article here on the New Zealand Herald website.

You could only have had a worse week if your name is David Shearer and you are a dead man walking less than six months into your new job.

New Monbiot

The latest from George Monbiot:

Deny the British empire's crimes? No, we ignore them

Oh Charlie Brooker

Charlie Brooker has a new piece online, this time on the Olympic Games corporate sponsors. Once again Charlie is in incredible form:

I've never understood why firms are prepared to shell out a fortune simply to refer to the Olympics in their advertising, but then I've always been mildly baffled by the popularity of sport full-stop. I also never understood why Gillette paid Tiger Woods, a man famous for hitting balls with a stick, a huge amount of money to promote scraping a bit of sharp metal across your face – only to sideline him when it became apparent that as well as hitting balls with a stick, he had been inserting his penis into as many different women as possible, an aspiration he presumably shared with the vast majority of Gillette's customers.

The Conservative Party and MMP

I have just come across the Conservative Party submission for the MMP Review. And surprise, surprise it is a well thought out and considered document, with their positions not being too far from my own. Have a read if you are interested:Conservative Party MMP Submission

You could also take the opportunity to try this: How Conservative are you?

The Drinking Age

Stuff.co.nz reports:

Support for returning the drinking age to 20 is gaining momentum as MPs face calls to address binge drinking.

I am not in favour of returning the drinking age to twenty. When you are 18 you are an adult and you should be allowed to buy a bottle of wine or a few beers. Or as Nikki Kaye puts it later in the article:

If someone can be elected to Parliament, get married or join the army, then they should be able to buy a bottle of wine

Alcohol Healthwatch support raising the drinking age, but their reasoning is a little suspect:

It is not about 18-year-olds, it is about 13-year-olds and making sure they don't begin drinking in their teens.

So maybe rather than punishing grown adults who want a drink we should look at preventing 13 year olds from getting access to alcohol.

Cigarettes and Poor Journalism

It has been a couple of days between posts and this is one isn't particularly flash. Just a couple of articles from stuff.co.nz.

The Dom Post reports:

The government is to forge ahead with a ban on branded cigarette packets.

Woohoo!! This is fantastic news, smoking is disgusting and we all know smokers are morally deficient people. Bring on the day when the smoking of tabacco is banned outright in this country!

The second is from the Wellingtonian and is about Council staff earning more than $100,000 a year. It says:

It pays to work for Wellington City Council. Forty-eight council employees earn more than $100,000 a year. The average wage for Wellingtonians is just under $35,000.

This is outrageously poor journalism. Rather than reporting the news in an unbiased manner, the reporter (Emma Beer) is putting a slant on the story from the first sentence. She is also drawing a comparison between two completely different things.

When I was living in London it was a pleasure to grab a copy of the Guardian and indulge in some fine journalism. Unfortunately the standard here in New Zealand is slightly lower and this article is really scraping the barrel.

Why I love Charlie Brooker!

Charlie Brooker is a Guardian columnist and UK TV personality. He is also in my opinion one of the funniest men on the planet. His piece today for the Guardian concerns the furore over gay characters in a video game. It is simply brilliant. Read the entire thing but here is the opening:

It must be awful, being a homophobe. Having to spend all that time obsessing about what gay people might be doing with their genitals. Seeing it in your mind, over and over again, in high-definition close-up. Bravely you masturbate, to make the pictures go away, but to no avail. They're seared onto your mental membranes. Every time you close your eyes, an imaginary gay man's imaginary penis rises from the murk, bowing ominously in your direction, sensing your discomfort. Laughing. Mocking. Possibly even winking. How dare they, this man and his penis? How dare they do this to you?