Off Tramping

I'm off to the Kauranga valley tomorrow, so I'll not be blogging again until Monday. Should be interesting because this is the first tme I've gone hiking by myself. Sounds geeky, but I really want some time away to :-



1) Think about youth work and ministry.

2) Look at greek study.

3) Spend time in prayer and reading God's Word.

Of Tax

As a little introduction to this whinge. Let me begin by saying a few things:- I do not come from a wealthy family. I come from a hard working family, who live in the suburb of Manurewa, and we could probably be classed as Lower-middle-class. My Dad is a Christian School teacher (so don’t think State School pay rates!) and up until recently my mum did not work. So this is not a rich kid moaning about how unfair it is to pay tax. Our family has worked and saved for what we have. Ok?



Ok I’m not a happy chappy about this situation. here’s the problem.



19% income tax.

12.5% tax on every item one purchases.

High rate of tax on petrol one buys.

High rate of tax on tobacco one buys.

High rate of tax on alcohol one buys.

Secondary tax (if you have more than one job) of 33% (yes one dollar out of every 3 you earn).



But my real problem is this. If I pay so much tax, why can I not expect a police officer around at my house when I get burgled, in 30 minutes rather than the whopping 19 hours average that it takes in Counties Manukau. Why cannot police investigate when I get burgled, or when someone rams into my car and takes off? If, (as I believe it is) the job of the government is primarily to protect it’s citizens and their property, then why the heck can they not manage it with taxes as weighty as these.



Why is 1/3 of government expenditure on the ridiculously named “Social Welfare”. Why should the government get 12.5% of the money I spend on food, and necessities... come to think of it anything at all. Why should I pay more tax (33%) for being a hard-worker who has two jobs? Is this creating incentive to work hard? Why should I be taxed at a higher rate if I earn more than a certain income? Since if I earn 100,000 I will still be paying a heck of a lot more tax even if I pay the same percentage of tax as someone earning 20,000. This is so wrong. It is a disincentive to do well for oneself. Not only that, but the government will tax you on the interest you earn in your bank savings! A disincentive to save! And you can’t even die dammit without your inheritence money being taxed by the government. Yes! You're taxed for dying already! “Oh I’m sorry sir, we’ll have to take some money off you, please don’t die in future.” Well at least it used to be this way, I’m not sure if it there still is a ‘death dues’ tax. Maybe one of you brainy people could find that out.



I am by no means arguing for no tax. But give us a break! We should pay income tax. But all this other stuff is becoming ridiculous. It is the result of moving away from God. When the church does not flourish, the state must provide for the needy (the deserving and the undeserving), and taxes will have to rise as a result.



Story of the Week

Via Anita comes this very topical tale. (Please note the alliteration.)





A tale for our times??.

Classic Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.



The Modern New Zealand Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.



The TV crews show up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food. New Zealanders are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Greens, the trade unions and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house. TV1 News, interrupting a cultural festival special from Ngaruawahia with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome." Dun Mihaka rants in an interview with Pam Corkery that the ant has gotten

rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." In response to polls, the Labour Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. With the help of United Future and Jim Anderton's mob, the bill is quickly passed into law. The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. The ant moves to Asia, and starts a successful agribiz company. The TV stations later show the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of

the ant's food though Spring is still months away, while the government owned house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it. Inadequate government funding is blamed, Margaret Wilson now is appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000. The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the NZ Herald blames it on

obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity. The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised by the government for enriching New Zealand's multicultural diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.

Who says we don't live in a democracy?

And the Winner Is....

Amanda McGrail, St Heliers.



Although I hardly expect she saw the challenge I gave on my blog yesterday about writing a letter! Here is her excellent letter.



"Why would Jane Norton criticise Samuel Carpenter for wanting to honour his wife? Erotic advertisements for women's lingerie do little to encourage women and everything to play with men's minds.



I am thankful that there are some young men around who want to tell their wives that despite the smorgasboard of sluttishness they face every day, they want their eyes to be only for her; that they took their wedding vows seriously.



I am sure Samuel Carpenter's wife felt honoured and adored by his letter, certainly not exploited. The increasing sexualisation of our culture is doing no one any favours, except advertisers whose creative flair seems stuck below the waist."



And to that I say "Amen and Amen."



Just as an aside does anyone know why one of the first results of the fall in Genesis was man trying to clothe himself, and then God clothing him? (Serious question, I have my own theories, but I'd like to know what ya'll think.)

Letter to the Editor and a challenge

Today Jane Norton has a letter in the Herald as a reply to my one. I will post her reply; not because it is worthy of being posted, but so that you can see the total lack of clear thinking coming from many feminists.



"I thank Scott Kennedy for pointing out to me that Samuel Carpenter's statement about women being the viewing property of their spouse only is simply because of Mr Carpenter's concern at the exploitation of women. It would appear that private exploitation, in the form of a husband owning his wife, is acceptable but public exploitation is not."



Ok, I'm not even going to talk about the clumsy first sentence, but rather about her big flaw. In this letter she is admitting that the posting of billboards is public exploitation, but instead of saying "No that's wrong" she uses a most flawed argument. She seems to insist that since there is some private exploitation (and we'll come to that) it's OK to have public exploitation. It's actually not at all clear that she knows what she is arguing for. Have I convinced her that public exploitation is wrong, and now she is moving onto defeat private? Either way she is jeopardizing her first argument, that the billboards are fine, and it is repressive to get rid of them.



Now I'd like to look at what she called 'private exploitation'. She labels the monogamous relationship of marriage as exploitation, where a husband 'owns' a wife, and she is his 'viewing property'. Well I say a hearty "Amen" to this. As it says in I Corinthians 7:4 "A wife belongs to her husband instead of to herself, and a husband belongs to his wife instead of to himself." This kind of relationship is a wonderful protection for women. Instead of being a restriction to women, it protects them from undesirable occurrences. God is not a feminist (I think that's the name of a book), and He ordained marriage as a mutually beneficial relationship of committment, which directly reflects Christ and His relationship to the Church. Feminism does not empower women. Instead it makes them more vulnerable to exploitation than ever. Here we have a feminist who attacks marriage, and sees no problem with women being plastered around on big billboards for all and sundry to oogle over. Posting women naked or semi-naked on big billboards encourages a superficial and shallow view of women to be adopted by a society. This more than marriage reduces women to a commodity, an object which can be compared to others, and rejected on basis of aesthetic qualities, rather than the qualities of a gentle and quiet spirit, or a love for the Lord. So in reality feminists are degrading women, and we Christians must arise to protect them.



So having said this (and I could say much more, and maybe will do so in a future post), I leave a challenge. Let's not all sit on the fence, and say "That's nice" or "That's interesting". Arise, get your pen, and paper (or your email) and write letters to the editor, exposing this attack on marriage for what it is! Stupidity. Marriage is the foundation of a society, and if it is attacked we Christians must defend it. Let us protect our sisters, and expose this nonsense for what it is.



PS I will post more on this when I get some time.

Letter to the Editor

Today is a good day! I got a letter to the New Zealand Herald in in reply to a feminist bashing a guy of integrity. She said he should be made to live in Saudi Arabia, because he objected to billboards of semi-naked/nude women being displayed in public places. She called him a repressive type. Again, another instance of what I have been talking about. If you don't agree with the anti-Christian agenda (and I believe there is one) then sod off and go to another country, or shut up. You are not allowed to have an opposing view. And as I have already said. Enough already! Speak out (or letter write).



Of Trogdor

His majesty increases. There is less of his piteous hiding behind the heater or filter tricks these days. Today I fed the fish. Now he being the only bottom feeding creature was given a little pill like piece of food for his consumption. When the top feeding fish had demolished their meal, they started to eat Trogdor's. And Trogdor smote the fishs, and all was laid to burnination. Seriously though, he was not amused at this invasion of his own nutrient supply, so gave chase. In the end he got really ticked off and just randomly chased fish around the tank for the fun of it.



Breakfast

Ethan (a guy from C.I.A) and I went to Macdonalds for breakfast this morning. 'Twas a very interesting experience. We both ordered a 'massive' McMuffin breakfast. Well, obviously massive means something different from what it did when I went to school. It was quite peturbing. Here I was (after looking at the picture) expecting some monolithic muffin with such imposing bulk that I might not be able to quite finish it. Instead what did I get? An impoverished indigent item which one almost had to feel sorry for. The egg if it could be called an egg, (and believe me I was highly suspicious about it's origins when I depressed it and it bounced back like some kind of rubber) looked highly processed, and was in a most unnatural looking shape. Thank goodness it was the fellowship we came for.



Happy Birthdays

Hamish! Happy birthday.... sorry I forgot! God bless ya heaps, and I'm sure there will be many more.



My mum also is having a birthday today, so I'm taking her out for coffee. But I won't say happy birthday here, 'cos she'll never see it. Hehe.



Democracy

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only

exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves (money) from

the treasury. From that moment on the majority votes for the candidates

promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with a result that a

democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a

dictatorship. The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations have

progressed 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following

sequence:



From bondage to spiritual faith

From spiritual faith to great courage

From courage to liberty

From liberty to abundance

From abundance to selfishness

From selfishness to complacency

From complacency to apathy

From apathy to dependency

And from dependency back to bondage.



Alexander Fraser Tyler (1748-1843) The Decline and fall of the Athenian

Republic.



I would be interested to see where ya'll think we are on that road the qoute talks about.

God bless you all.

Fishs

I got some fish today. I've named a few of them. Trogdor is this really cool black one with a red tail, and he has fangs (and majesty). He kinda hangs out at the back of the tank underneath the filter, or between the filter and the heater. Then there is "Arrowed" (a male guppy) and "Sworded" (the pregnant female guppy).



Real Issues - Maxim Weekly Email



This came out in real issues. Ms Turia is the type of 'radical Maori' I was talking about in a post a few days earlier. I refuse to be called a guest. I am tangata whenua. I belong here, and this is my country, as much as it is any other New Zealand citizens.



Are Pakeha guests in New Zealand?



Are Pakeha merely guests in New Zealand? Associate Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia has made it clear she believes that to be the case. She wants the name 'Maori' to be replaced by 'tangata whenua' - the people of the land - to emphasise they are the hosts.



Ms Turia is a member of a government trying to promote Maori and Pakeha as partners. But we can't have it both ways. What she is implying in talking of 'hosts' and 'guests', is, that the host is in charge and guests have to comply with their way of doing things. This is not a partnership. The question remains: are Pakeha guests, settlers, or conquerors? Historian Michael King, who has strong links with Maori, offers another perspective in his book Being Pakeha Now:



"Like the ancestors of the Maori, [my ancestors] came as immigrants; like Maori too, we became indigenous at the point where our focus of identity and commitment shifted to this country and away from our countries and cultures of origin. Again like Maori, our culture - mainstream Pakeha culture - altered here in response to a relationship with the land and its flora and fauna. Ultimately that culture was transformed by interaction, history and experience into something whose proportions and combinations bore only a distant relationship to the original ingredients. People who live in New Zealand by choice as distinct from an accident of birth, and who are committed to this land and its people and steeped in their knowledge of both, are no less 'indigenous' than Maori."



Also, like other ministers, Ms Turia is attempting to change the language shaping our understanding of present and past issues. In a Civil Society, however, both our language and grasp of history needs to be clear, objective and accurate.

Work

It's 10:53pm, and I just got home from work. Feels weird. But I'm happy because I got my Pray For Rain (PFR) cd's today. Jono also received his. Funny thing is, he ordered his a week before mine, and paid extra for 'fast' shipping, whilst I used 'economy'. Oh well, I guess economy is the way to go!



Fishs

Tomorrow I am going fishing for fishs. I'll probably grab me some plants as well. I might even post a photo somewhere so ewes can check it out in all it's majesty.

Request for Recipe

Yes it's coming! The recipe for Scott's Butter Mince Curry will be posted after my final test and adjustments. Be patient... I know you want to try it! Anita has told me specifically that she can't wait. Haha joking.. I think it wasn't as positive as that.



Of Fish

The tank is set up. It's 55L, and I got some gravel, a filter, a heater, thermometer, chemicals and am just getting the pH and temperature issues sorted before I introduce fish. I hope to add some plants and fish tomorrow. Should be good. And then you can all come round and have a look..... maybe we could crack open the jelly tips... or maybe even the butter mince.



Procrastination Issue

I have been working on a way of solving my procrastination issues. I will probably finish my plan today. Then all that remains is adhering to it. I will demonstrate it when I finish it completely, as long as it does not take me away from important tasks. That's what procrastination is really about. Not doing something you could be, but rather doing something that is unimportant.

Scott's Butter Mince Curry

I made this for my family on Friday night. They live yet.......so I have called my recipe experiment a success. It is now fully customized by me, and I will release it after just one more trial with some different people. Tastes very nice. You may mock now, but I assure you this time I'm really on to something. It's not just another one of my soups. Although some of them wern't half bad you know.



Young Men's Bible Study

We started our young men's Bible study today, amidst memphis meltdowns, pies, fish cakes (and maybe some kind of fish sauce from the market too), and of course the beautiful apple cake from Mark. The food was awesome, and was punished by all concerned. We also studied the Bible!

Read Dan's blog. He wrote a really really cool post!

Go Dan!