Should rescuers listen to Blue and not touch people without their OK – or would that be a big blue?

These ladies would get no complaint from Alf, if they manhandled him without his permission.

Oh, Gawd.

Bloody Jackie Blue is banging on again, obviously abandoning her National Party loyalties for the moment.

She has been prompted to add to the outpouring of feminist condemnation of The Boss over that pony tail stuff.

And what does she know about it?

Not much, as she acknowledges:

And Lisa-Marie makes three – the home-bound count is rising as the CERA saga rolls on

A hugged tree shouldn’t be so likely to complain about sexual harassment.

All that remains is for Iain Rennie to join the principals of the CERA sweetie saga so we have a quartet of state servants being paid without having to turn up at the office.

Alf makes this observation on learning that someone by name of Lisa-Marie Rachan, described as one of the public sector’s top communications managers, has been placed on sick leave.

Her health has faltered at much the same time as questions are being asked about the the handling of the press conference to announce Roger Sutton’s resignation as the boss of the Canterbury earthquake recovery outfit.

What’s that cry from New Plymouth? It’s a lament for the further dismantling of our democracy

It’s a struggle for the champions of democracy to stem the rising tide of co-governance arrangements that make a sham of electing our councillors and (before long, you can be sure) members of Parliament.

They have cause to feel like that Canute feller trying to hold back the incoming tide.

Trouble is, being a champion of democracy can’t be squared with the modern-day need to recognise that our indigenous people are special people.

Democrats expose themselves to the charge they are racist and reactionary if they resist proposals to appoint our special people directly to positions of power and influence in our governance arrangements.

They certainly have been chided by a New Plymouth city councillor for having the gall to resist giving local iwi members a very special place – and very special privileges – in the city’s decision-making system.

Gorgeous Gussie knew how to draw a crowd – and it wasn’t by spattering asterisks over her knickers

How to shock the Brits without using the Ni*** word…

Dunno if use of the Ni*** word is more generally repugnant than use of the c*** word.

Come to think of it, how do you pronounce Ni***?

The question is raised in the light of a fuss reported here about some words on a Christchurch roller derby player’s shorts.

According to the headline, the shorts sparked a racism row, although nothing in the report mentions anything that the Grumbles would regard as racist.

They are struggling, actually, to work out what the allegedly offensive words might mean.

Sort out your transvestites from your transgenders – that’s the lesson from a booklet about harlots

Alf is a bit bemused about who – exactly – has been offended by some Auckland Council pamphleteering. More important, why should they have been offended?

His bemusement is prompted by the council’s expression of regret for any offence caused over a booklet it helped produce on street prostitution in South Auckland.

It seems this booklet prompted a string of complaints to the Human Rights Commission.

Dunno what Dad would have made of these criminal and queer happenings around Godzone

A quick look at the news items posted on the NZ Herald website this morning disquieted your long-serving member, as he prepared to attend the RSA service in the Eketahuna Town Hall.

No, dammit. Disquieted is not the right word. He was dismayed.

And he wondered what his dad would have made of it.

Was this the New Zealand for which the supreme sacrifice was made by so many Kiwis in World War Two?

Apartment owner’s complaint amounts to a further erosion of the right to discriminate

Alan Witcombe may well be a decent bloke, in most other respects.

But Alf is glad he is not a neighbour, because this Witcombe feller seems apt to treat the peace and quiet of a neighbourhood with a cavalier disrespect.

Why so?

Well, he is kicking up a hullabaloo about a ban on brats and sprats which he wishes to over-ride.

Because he couldn’t over-ride the rules, he has complained to the bloody Human Rights Commission to have them over-ridden.

Ombudsman canes the school that surrendered its authority to a gang of six bullies

Here's how to restore authority to schools.

It looks like wimpy staff at Hutt Valley High School let six bullying brats run the show a few years back and terrorise other kids.

An Ombudsmen’s Office report – Stuff says today – reveals “chilling details of systemic violence at the school, intimidation and abuse”.

It also dossiers a history of failure to punish culprits or acknowledge the seriousness of their crimes.

Alf is tempted to wonder how many staff could be mustered to combat the trouble generated by – how many louts were running amok?

Oh, yes. Six.

And if the staff were losing the battle, what stopped them dialling 111???

We may muse on these matters on the strength of the aforementioned Ombudsman’s Office report, that says pupils at the school were subjected to torture, extreme violence and sexual abuse.

Two professors offer statistical succour for Alasdair Thompson but Dr Judy remains sceptical

Alf will be making another pitch to his Cabinet colleagues to save good public money by dispensing of the services of a few more civil servants.

The jobs he has in mind are those at the Human Rights Commission and, more partiuclarly, the job of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner.

This post with a grand title is held by one Judy McGregor, a former newspaper hack who somewhere down the track became a professor.

On the Human Rights Commission website she is introduced as Dr Judy McGregor, PhD, PGDip, LLB, BA, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner; she is jointly designated as the Disability Rights Commissioner.

She is a former Massey University professor, trained lawyer and has a doctorate in political communication.

This implies she takes a very scholastic approach to issues within her domain.

But is she dispassionate and open-minded?

Today we find she is casting doubts on some research done by two other professors, although she seems to be unaware of their work and has not yet read it.

Human rights: its a long way from deaths in an Iraqi refugee camp to promoting Pink Shirt Day

Alf wonders – not for the first time – how our Human Rights Commission earns its keep .

His musings were triggered by the United Nations human rights chief, who is condemning a recent Iraqi military operation.

The operation in question happened in a camp north of Baghdad and apparently left 34 people dead and dozens injured.

An independent inquiry into the incident has been called for.