Expelled boy’s champions should avoid pleading special needs while trying to get him back to school

Alf wishes good luck to the school that is going to court to fight to keep a child with Asperger’s “out of the classroom”.

He is not too sure, however, that the school’s aims have been accurately reported by the Herald on Sunday.

The school authorities probably are hoping to keep the child (if that’s the right word) out of their  classrooms and not necessarily out of all classrooms.

The student in question did get involved in a scuffle with a teacher, after all, and the school board should have the welfare of teachers in mind as well as that of the kids.

But inevitably outfits like the Human Rights Commission will have other ideas and it seems we have appointed some bloke to be a Disabilities Commissioner at some time and he wants a slice of the judicial action too.

We can be sure he doesn’t much intend to ensure teachers aren’t mauled by the brats in their charge if the brats suffer from any form of disability .

Seditionists should forget about sacking Her Majesty and give more thought to the equality they promote

An outfit calling itself the undergroundREPUBLIC has emerged from the sewers or some dank hole to say it’s time to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth as our Head of State.

Probably they don’t know the words of Happy Birthday and would rather be rid of our monarch than wish her a happy birthday and sing that song.

Accordingly, they are asking: “Why do we celebrate the Queen’s Birthday ……. Seriously???”

They (or maybe there is just one) have expressed their sedition in a media statement today.

“Bye Bye Liz” …. Let’s elect our own President as a figurehead, like other modern democratic countries do… a kiwi who makes us proud to be a New Zealander.”

“Let’s put this person’s head on our coinage for the duration they are our Head of State.”

“It would be easy to have nominations with 500 signatures, forwarded to the Electoral Commission so that we can vote in our President at the same time we vote for our representatives.”

When all the kids are dressed the same, a sneaky kiss behind the dunnies will be perilous

Let’s just call it “The Bog”.

Alf does not not know if it is a reliable expectation or a vain hope.

He hopes it’s the former.

It’s the Family First NZ assertion that most schools along with the parents in the school community will rightly reject the extreme elements of the new sexuality education guidelines.

Family First also says resources should be targeted at parents to help them educate their own children (presumably on the birds and bees stuff).

The statement was prompted by news that schools have been asked to consider offering gender-neutral uniforms as part of new sexuality education guidelines aimed at being more inclusive.

Dunno what this “inclusive” carry-on is all about.

An Ambassador’s job would be great, but the climate in Baghdad surely is best avoided

Dunno what James Munro has done to blot his copy book.

But the poor bugger is being despatched to Baghdad as our ambassador.

Frankly, Alf would have been inclined to give the job to someone like Winston Peters, to get him out of our hair.

Any one of umpteen greenies or lefties should also have considered.

But no. Foreign Minister Murray McCully today announced New Zealand will be opening an Embassy in Baghdad, and it will be headed by career diplomat James Munro.

“As signalled when the decision to deploy to Iraq was announced, the Government has now finalised arrangements to open a permanent mission in Baghdad,” Mr McCully says.

“Our resident Ambassador will be charged with supporting New Zealand’s non-combat training mission to Iraq and assessing how we can better support and build relations with the Iraqi government.

“The New Zealand Embassy will be co-located within the Australian Embassy in Baghdad and Mr Munro will arrive there next week.

“In addition to leading New Zealand’s engagement with the Iraq government and providing diplomatic support to the training mission, our Embassy will also be responsible for maintaining relations with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.

“Mr Munro, the Ambassador designate to Baghdad, is an Arabic speaker and former military officer who has previously been posted to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh,” Mr McCully says.

The appointment has been made within days of Islamic State seizing control of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province just 110km from Baghdad.

Fallujah, located between, is already a terror stronghold.

Whether diplomatic support for our training mission is what they need is a good question.

Alf is minded that some commentators are musing that the fall of Baghdad to Islamic State would harm American strategic interests as the fall of Saigon did in 1975. The blow to US credibility and the enhancement of ISIS’s prestige, of its black flag rising over an evacuated US embassy, would be incalculable.

Fair to say, the article from which this was quoted went on to advise the Americans on what they could and should do to keep Baghdad from falling to ISIS.

But the job of NZ Ambassador doesn’t sound too tempting. Alf enjoys a warm climate but not one as hot as Baghdad’s.

In some countries the people fight for democracy but here we are helping iwi to water it down

Mrs Grumble has been dipping into some dictionaries to check out the meaning of democracy.

Here’s one of the results:

Full Definition of DEMOCRACY

a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

And here’s another:

de·moc·ra·cy (dĭ-mŏk′rə-sē)
n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

2. A political or social unit that has such a government.

3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.

4. Majority rule.

5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

Then there’s the idea of one person, one vote.

Germaine Greer hits a discordant note on the matter of Sir Elton’s fatherhood – or is he a mother?

“Today it’s my turn to be Dad.”

Bugger me, Alf muttered as he found himself in total agreement with (a) an Australian and (b) a celebrated feminist.

Yep. He’s in tune with the thinking of Germaine Greer, at least on the matter of Sir Elton John and his domestic arrangements.

Sir Elton is married, of course, but does not have a wife.

Nope. He has a husband, a bloke by name of David Furnish.

But Furnish – it seems – is named as ‘mother’ on the birth certificates of their two sons.

Don’t ask how the pair managed to produce two sons. According to what Alf remembers of his biology class many years ago, two blokes should not be able to spawn two sons, or children of any gender, but the science on this matter may well have moved on since then.

Something or someone called a surrogate mother is said to play a role in human reproduction nowadays, but he can’t find Surrogate on a map.

The name of a rich-lister’s son is suppressed – but could news media let us see a photograph?

Oh dear, The bloody courts have done it again.

The name of the son of a New Zealand rich-lister is being kept secret – for now, at least.

Alf can understand his concern for anonymity because he has been accused of punching a female police officer in the face.

This is not chivalrous behaviour in Alf’s circles, although it must be said it might be acceptable behaviour, and even laudable, among the scions of rich-listers.

But the cop has cause to be aggrieved.

According to this report:

The police officer suffered a black eye, serious swelling to her face and needed hospital treatment.

The man has been charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, assaulting a security guard and damaging a window during an incident outside the popular Dunedin student haunt Shooters Bar back in March.

Greenie gathers a gaggle of MPs to promote equality – ha! – in a world where folk are obviously unequal

So how will the bloody law put these blokes on an equal footing?

Alf gave a momentary thought to joining one of those cross-party working group that do-gooders are apt to set up.

This one is being established to look at and advocate for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

All MPs have been sent an email telling them of the opportunity to join.

But Alf quickly recognised his application to sign up would be declined because he would want to add a few more rights to the list.

The right to discriminate, for starters.

And the right to be left alone by the state when you do something as a matter of conscience or belief.

He’s not too fond of having to work with Greens and lefties, anyway, which tends to be one of the requirements of joining cross-party working groups.

This one has been initiated by Green Party MP Jan Logie.

At the last count, it includes 12 members from her party, National, Labour, New Zealand First and Act.

The Maori Party is somewhat noticeably absent.

Iwi bounce back from defeat at the ballot box to demand council voting rights without being elected

You’ve got to give Peter Moeahu full marks for gall.

His undemocratic cause was lost when the good citizens of New Plymouth went to the polls to decide if it was a good idea for their district council to have a separatist ward reserved for indigenous persons.

An overwhelming majority of those who bothered getting off their chuffs to vote made plain it was a bad idea.

But this Peter Moeahu feller sees this as a chance to push an even more provocative idea.

He is calling for New Plymouth’s council to reconsider appointing iwi representatives to influential standing committees.

This means they would get to influence council decisions without having to go through the bother of getting elected, even in a separatist ward.

Forget about poverty until the Budget speech is read – for now, let’s wallow in this corporate swill

Dunno what’s in The Budget for the poor people.

But Alf is delighted to learn that the corporate welfare trough has not been emptied in the name of fiscal austerity or in same mad endeavour to produce a surplus.

The Boss dipped into the trough yesterday with his Tourism hat on to dish out lots of lolly to two operators who look sufficiently well-heeled to find their own lolly, but hey – what’s the point of being in government if you can’t steer a bit of taxpayers’ money in the direction of supporters or people who might become supporters if appropriately nourished.

Alf is especially delighted to see that an enterprise run by our indigenous people is being nicely looked after. These people are very special, as readers of this blog know, and if we didn’t give them something like this they would be waving the bloody treaty and demanding it.

A consequence of this largesse is some good publicity from Maori Television: