For those of us who consider ourselves political junkies, every 4 years the US election brings a new level of excitement and pageantry to the world of politics. The two-party system in America gives the election a feeling of sports, where people across the world pick a side and cheer for who they want to […]
The recent statement from the World Health Organisation’s Special Envoy on Covid-19 criticising lockdown as a primary means of tackling the Corona virus was a surprise. Not least because it seems to validate the beleaguered positions of those bucking the international consensus. In relation to the biggest issue in the US Presidential election it looks like […]
Among the roadside billboards canvassing votes for political parties and their candidates in New Zealand’s triennial election on October 17 is one announcing starkly: “LETHAL DOSE with NO assessment for coercion required.” Below that it asks: “Is the End of Life Choice Act safe?” It’s the kind of silly question you have to ask when […]
In the eyes of many around the world the COVID experience of Australia and New Zealand has been a relatively benign one. But as I mentioned last week (here and here) New Zealand is going to have to deal with some significant demographic headwinds in the years ahead due to the pandemic. Now, it seems as if […]
Many parents these days find that their family routines have been totally disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In many cases children are “in school” from their homes, and sports and other activities outside the home have been curtailed or canceled altogether. This means more family time together at home, which can be a mixed blessing! […]
On December 1, 2018, the Canadian police arrested Huawei VP & CFO, Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, who was transiting at Vancouver Airport, at the request of the U.S. government for mutual legal assistance. Meng Wanzhou was charged with suspicion of violating U.S. export controls and selling sensitive technology to Iran with false accounting information by the […]
The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) hosted a four day conference at Great Barrington, Massachusetts between October 1 and 4 which concluded with the launch of a statement regarding what the proper response to the Covid crisis ought to be. The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) was co-authored by Professor Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at […]
As the New Zealand euthanasia referendum approaches, voters could be helped by looking at the experience in other countries before making up their minds on this complex topic. At the end of July, Czechia became the latest country to reject the legalisation of euthanasia following similar rejections in Portugal and Finland. The opposition to the […]
You have to hand it New York Orthodox Jewish community: the Irish Church leadership could learn a lot from them. When the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio – taking time off from marching in massive crowds against imagined rascism – decided to weld shut the gates of public parks and close down synagogues, […]
Kristie Higgs, who had been a pastoral assistant at a Church of England primary school in Gloucestershire, lost her case against dismissal on Wednesday. She had been sacked because the school management of Farmor’s school in Fairford had decided that she had been guilty of “gross misconduct.” When you consider that gross misconduct for teachers […]
Despite her serial twitter feed attacking Trump and supporting Biden and her hagiography of the loathsome Nancy Pelosi, I thought that Susan Page was a reasonably fair moderator for the Pence/Harris debate. She did frame one question in terms of Trump providing “misleading information” regarding his recent health and a gratuitous and immoderate reference to […]
The policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of eradicating cultural, religious, and linguistic identities is systematic and derives from Xi Jinping’s reflections on the fall of the Soviet Union. Bitter Winter, the magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China, has documented in the last few weeks the escalation of the cultural genocide in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner […]