• No Minister: Open Letter to Andrew Little
  Dear Bastard, When I joined your union, I thought you were my friend. I naively imagined you would be working in my interests but I was wrong. Your organization has put the Labour Party before the wellbeing of me and my fellow workers.
  (tags: economy justice)

• Challenge Weekly Archives: February 18th 2008
  [NZ warned about “soft” approach] Former jihadist Dr Tawfik Hamid has dire warnings for the Western world, and for New Zealand [Focus needs to be on families] Salvation Army report asks compelling moral questions – what priority have we given to fam
  (tags: society islam faith)
• Challenge Weekly Archives: February 25th 2008
  [Unique Maori treasures returned] A piupiu (flax skirt), and korowai (cloak) belonging to early Salvation Army Maori missionary Ernest Holdaway were gifted back to NZ [Multi-ethnic future] multi-ethnic church to be greatest vehicle of the Holy Spirit for
  (tags: faith spirit gospel)
• Challenge Weekly Archives: March 3rd 2008
  [Call for research] pro-life group calls for action, after 2007 ASC Report found that 99% of 17,934 abortions in 2006 were approved on mental health grounds [Emir backs church] Conservative Muslims are furious, but the emir of Qatar has allowed constructi
  (tags: faith society islam sex)

• John Minto : China trade deal a blunder
  It is difficult to quantify the size of Helen Clark’s blunder when she signs the free-trade agreement with China today because although we don’t know the precise details, it is abundantly clear the agreement will be bad for New Zealand workers, bad fo
  (tags: 1984 society economy china)
• We trade principles at our peril – David Round
  Principles are tricky things. Almost by definition, they are impractical. Fine ideas do not put bread on the table. But if we care only for practicalities and money in our pocket, then there is an end to our moral life. We are reduced to the level of our
  (tags: 1984 china society economy)

• One Cosmos: The Abstract, the Ponderable, and the Real
  There is a spiritually totalitarian aspect of science, which can lead man to be trapped in a cold and abstract prison of his own making, and therefore be exiled from the fulsomeness of the living Real. Humans are a “prolongation” of the Real, not reducibl
  (tags: cosmos mind spirit)

• Quest For Security – Politics, economics and culture in NZ: Free Trade With China – Signed and Stamped
  I guess free trade agreements are part of this endless cycle of hollow promises – and after all, we really don’t have many tariffs or protections on any of our economy, no matter how important it is, so it’s logical for useless right-wing ‘Labour’ politic
  (tags: economy 1984)
• New Zealand Conservative: All the tea in China
  We want to chat about Tibet over a nice cup of tea, as trading partners are wont to do. We want to help them save face in these troubling times, just as they have extended the hand of friendship to countries such as Zimbabwe and North Korea.
  (tags: 1984 economy)
• StephenFranks.co.nz » Blog Archive » Economic orthodoxy, free trade and the left
  I think H Clark will go down in history like Muldoon – a political master who used her power only to hold it. She could have used her political genius on the left’s black hole welfare, education and crime policies. Instead she has bribed her supporters
  (tags: 1984 society)

• the evangelical outpost: Battlestar Galactica Is the Best Show on Television
  Some people may attempt to dispute the indisputable fact that Battlestar Galactica is the greatest series currently on television and one of the greatest shows ever. They do not realize that to agree is to be in possession of a correct judgment while to d
  (tags: fun cosmos)

• Atheism Sucks!: Sam Harris—Nietzsche’s Madman
  Harris complains that theistic religions are manmade and make subjective assertions about supernatural transcendence. In its place he seeks establish a manmade religion that makes subjective assertions about material transcendence.
  (tags: atheism dawkins)

A powerful quote provided by “reid” at TBR.cc, which I’ve been thinking about for a few days,

Faith is the grey dawn which precedes the full and perfect day of knowledge. Without it there can be no attainment of strength, no permanent security of heart…They who have no faith in the triumph of good ignominiously succumb to the elements of evil. And this must be so; for he who does not elevate good, elevates evil, and, among seeing evil as the master of life, he receives the wages of evil.

There are those who, having yielded to defeat in the battle of life, talk thoughtlessly about the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of others. They believe – and try to make others believe – that they would have been successful, or rich, or famous but for the treachery and villainy of those about them. They tell, for the thousandth time, how they have been deceived, defrauded, and degraded by others. They imagine that they themselves are all trust, all innocence, all honesty and good nature, and that nearly everybody else is all that is bad and malicious. They tell how they would have been just as prosperous and honoured as others if they had been as selfish as those others; and that their great drawback, and the chief source, in themselves, of their failures, is that they were born with too great an endowment of unselfishness. Such self-praising complainers cannot distinguish between good and evil, and their faith in human nature and the goodness of the universe is dead. Looking upon others, they have eyes for evil only; looking upon themselves, they see only suffering innocence. Rather than discover any evil in themselves, they would have only humanity bad. In their hearts they have the wretched Demon of Evil as the Lord of Life, and see in the course of things only a selfish scramble in which the good is always crushed and evil rises triumphant. Blind to their own folly and ignorance and weakness, they see nothing but injustice in their fate, nothing but misery and wretchedness in their present condition.

He who would have even a useful and successful life – much more so a spiritually noble and victorious one – must at once root out and cast away this wretched condition of mind that negatives all that is good and pure, and gives the pre-eminence to all that is base and impure…The man who believes that evil is more powerful than good, and that bad men have the best of life, is still involved in the elements of evil; and, being so involved, he suffers – must necessarily suffer – defeat.

This puts me in mind of Psalm 37:

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

And Psalm 73:

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.
They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”
This is what the wicked are like— always carefree, they increase in wealth.
Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me
till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!
As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.
When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.