Page 13.

Nice to make a small contribution.

Actually, given that the guy who’s doing the interview is also liberal, it probably says that and a lot more.

Sorry I can’t embed the video

It’s a detailed report on how Smiths City is complying with minimum share holding regulations.

Seriously?

NZX listing rules require shareholdings, where the share price is between 25 cents and 50c, to be at least 1000 shares.

The Smiths City board was asking those shareholders to increase their holding over 1000 shares on or before January 31.

If that was not done, the company would make a formal offer to buy back the shareholders’ entire holding at the average price per share for the 10 days from December 22, after the company’s publication of its half-year report.

The company would pay the administrative costs from the share purchases.

”If you do not take up the company’s offer to purchase your shares, the Company must then, in accordance with Article 8.4 of the Company’s Constitution sell your shares (on a date no less than three months and one week from the date of this letter) on the NZX on your behalf.

Ah, so they’re going to steal the money then! Er, no.

”The net proceeds of the sale of your shares will be paid to you.”

Can the news possibly get any more boring than this?

As one would expect, there’s plenty of donation buttons and Brian appears promoting his book. Modest eh!

I would venture to point out that just perhaps one obvious example of religious and social activism just might come to mind! (I think we can safely dismiss Brian’s contribution to politics as “not helpful”.)

Outside of Christ himself, I would nominate George Muller, a man who spent his life proving that God listens to prayer for our daily needs. His orphanages cared for thousands of orphans (some of who are alive today – I know someone who met one of them), feeding them, clothing them and housing them. 

In all his life, he did not once even hint at a public appeal – rather temporal needs were always bought to God.

It would be wrong to think that the answers to prayer that George Müller experienced were all easy and quick – his diaries show that his experience was often far from that. Life was tough at times, but he learned to be persistent in and committed to the challenging task that God set him – that of demonstrating the faithfulness of God in prayer, often in the most miraculous of circumstances. His diaries provide documentary evidence of 50,000 answers to prayer, of which 30,000 had been answered in 24 hours or less!

Here was a man who, in want, knew the challenge of waiting and being persistent in prayer; a man who was so thankful that he saw the faithfulness of God in answering those prayers, many of which were miraculous, timely and fairly immediate. It is not surprising that his story spans not just the ages but also the nations, for many seek the intimacy that Müller enjoyed with his God.

Rather than inventing new ways of raising money, he simply asked God for what he needed. Rather than building up his wealth, he placed his needs before his maker.

His work continues today, and their web site doesn’t have a single donation button.

I guess we’ll find out how acceptable that is in the Green Party.

(For those who aren’t interested in following the link, the site that Toad links to approvingly is very interested in getting a certain popular conservative politican’s name associated with a substance partially consisting of human fecal matter, among other things.)

Destiny Church. They’ve announced plans to move their existing private school to South Auckland and re-establish it as a charter school in order to receive public funding.

LOL.

No, they have not. What Idiot’s own source says:

Destiny Church could receive money from the public purse if it establishes a charter school as part of a proposed new complex in South Auckland, an education union says.

Destiny’s school will move sites. That’s a physicial move, and going to happen.

If it becomes a charter school, that’s an institutional change and is merely speculated by the teacher’s union. There’s not a single quote in the story from the church itself. It doesn’t even look like they bothered to ask for one.

In other words, pure scaremongering. I suspect that Brian Tamaki may consider the charter option, but he knows as well as anyone that such a move may result in future policy changes wiping out the entire point of his school.

This is what charter schools mean: giving taxpayer’s money to cults to peddle their wackiness, without being subject to the normal curriculum or normal educational standards.

Idiot of course assumes that the normal curriculum isn’t wackiness. I’m not entirely convinced of that myself.

Its about paying for indoctrination, rather than education. But that is no business of the education system, and not something that government money should be spent on.

Idiot better be careful, he’s committing left-wing heresy here. Using the school system for indoctrination and social engineering is a pretty solid plank of any left wing movement. I’ve heard educators on National Radio proclaiming that they consider the job of the system exactly that, and they made it explicitly clear that they did not think that was a bad thing in the slightest.

I for one sincerely hope that Idiot continues such calls!

Update: Well, I stand corrected – to some degree. Brian is making it clear that he wants government funding for many parts of the project, on the basis that his church keeps people out of jail.

He’s actually right there. One thing that Destiny has done that is good is taking a bunch of young people and gave them discipline, turning around their lives. I noted a while back that NZ First put out a press release congratulating them for that, and today the Maori Party is doing the same. But I’m getting off topic.

Thing is, Brian is about money. (Well, he’s about Brian first but money is a close second.) So he’s clearly decided in this instance that he’s more than happy to risk the beurcracy’s backlash and play the game for what he can get out. When I wrote the above, I was thinking in terms of the Christian Schools I’ve known. Seems I would do well to remember that Brian continues down the road towards founding a mind control cult, with himself in the driver’s seat.

But one thing that did not feature in the TV One story: there was no claim that they were re-founding their school as a charter school. So (to the best of my knowledge) Idiot’s claim remains completely false.

Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) — The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly and the Cabinet of the DPRK on Saturday announced the following notice to all party members, servicepersons and people:

A separate announcement will be made to the military one presumes, which will outline exactly the circumstances in which civilians can be shot in this time of change..

The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly and the Cabinet of the DPRK notify with bitterest grief to all the party members, servicepersons and people of the DPRK that Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, passed away of a sudden illness at 08: 30 on December 17, Juche 100 (2011) on his way to field guidance.

Curious how his death is in year 100 by their reckoning.

Interesting that they have their own reckoning!

He dedicated all his life to the inheritance and accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche and energetically worked day and night for the prosperity of the socialist homeland, happiness of people, reunification of the country and global independence. He passed away too suddenly to our profound regret.

I’m sure that the people he failed in starving to death aren’t so regretful.

His sudden demise at a historic time when an epochal phase is being opened for accomplishing the cause of building a powerful and prosperous socialist state and the Korean revolution is making steady victorious progress despite manifold difficulties and trials is the greatest loss to the WPK and the Korean revolution and the bitterest grief to all the Koreans at home and abroad.

Must be tricky, making sure that the NK people are kept in the dark about the Arab Spring and all that stuff.

Kim Jong Il, who was born as a son of guerillas on Mt. Paektu, the holy mountain of the revolution, and grew up to be a great revolutionary, wisely led the party, the army and people for a long period, performing undying revolutionary feats on behalf of the country, the people, the times and history.

He died performing undying feats. One a family blog one wouldn’t like to speculate as to what those feats might be but I’m sure it had nothing to do with rugby, or a local real estate firm.

Kim Jong Il possessed of personality and qualifications as a great man on the highest and perfect level was an outstanding thinker and theoretician who led the revolution and construction along the path of steady victories with his profound ideologies and theories and remarkable leadership. He was also peerlessly political elder and outstanding and illustrious commander of Songun and peerless patriot and tender-hearted father of the people who recorded the whole history of the revolutionary struggle with ardent love for the country and its people and noble dedication.

Funny how that “path of steady victories” has so many bodies strewn along it. But I’m sure with his noble dedication he was able to hold his own against the stench of his putrid government.

Considering it as his lifelong mission to carry to completion generation after generation the revolutionary cause of Juche started by President Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il pushed forward the revolution and construction in line with the idea and intention of the President as the dearest comrade and the most loyal comrade-in-arms of the President.

That “president” would be his long-dead father.

Kim Jong Il comprehensively developed in depth the immortal Juche idea, Songun idea, fathered by the President and glorified it as the idea guiding the era of independence with his clairvoyant wisdom and energetic ideological and theoretical activities. He firmly defended and carried forward the revolutionary traditions of Mt. Paektu with pure mind, thereby giving a steady continuity to the Korean revolution.

Any rumors that he spent his days watching american movies are to be throughly refuted by firing squad.

Kim Jong Il, genius of the revolution and construction, developed the party, army and state to be the party, army and state of Kim Il Sung, put the dignity and power of the nation on the highest level and ushered in the golden days of prosperity unprecedented in the nation’s history spanning 5 000 years under the uplifted banner of modeling the whole society on the Juche idea.

Cos nothing says dignity and power like a nation where most people’s highest form of transport machinery is a wooden hand-cart.

Kim Jong Il, supreme incarnation of the revolutionary moral obligation, set a great example in perpetuating the memory of President Kim Il Sung unknown in human political history, thus making sure that the august name of the President, his undying revolutionary career and exploits always shine along with the eternal history of Juche Korea.

It’s a little know fact that North Korea’s plant life lives not off the sun, but off the reflected glory of his most-high bullshitness.

Kim Jong Il, great master of politics and illustrious commander born of Heaven, honorably defended the socialist gains, noble heritage bequeathed by the President, by dint of Songun politics despite the collapse of the world socialist system, the demise of the President which was the greatest loss to the nation, the vicious offensive of the imperialist allied forces to stifle the DPRK and severe natural disasters. He turned the DPRK into an invincible political and ideological power in which single-minded unity has been achieved and made it emerge a nuclear weapons state and an invincible military power which no enemy can ever provoke.

Yes, the dead guy turned the country invincible.

Strange how he died then.

True to President Kim Il Sung’s behest, Kim Jong Il set a gigantic goal to build a prosperous and powerful country and led an all-people general advance for attaining it, thus making the drive for a great revolutionary surge rage throughout the country and bringing about great innovations and leap forward on all fronts of socialist construction.

Well, they kept out reality TV so not all is lost I guess…

Kim Jong Il, father of the nation and lodestar of national reunification, led all the fellow countrymen to the road of independence and great national unity with his rock-firm will to implement the instructions of the President for national reunification and ushered in the June 15 era of reunification in which the noble idea of “By our nation itself” is materialized.

In other words, we want to share our slave state with the south!

How generous.

As a great guardian of socialism and justice, he conducted energetic external activities for the victory of the socialist cause, global peace and stability and friendship and solidarity among peoples under the uplifted banner of independence against imperialism, thus remarkably raising the international position and prestige of the DPRK and making immortal contributions to the human cause of independence.

I’m beginning to realise just how many words they’re using here, and just how little is actually being said.

In the whole period of his protracted revolutionary guidance, he valued and loved the people very much and always shared weal and woe with them. He continued to make difficult forced march for field guidance, making unremitting efforts and working heart and soul to build a thriving country and improve the standard of people’s living. He died from repeated mental and physical fatigue on a train in that course.

Again, nothing to do with hookers. Nothing.

The whole life of Kim Jong Il was the most brilliant life of a great revolutionary who covered an untrodden thorny path with his iron will and superhuman energy, holding aloft the red flag of revolution. It was the life of the peerless patriot who dedicated his all to the country and its people.

He dedicated his life to his country, making it serve his every whim while crushing the life out of it.

He passed away to our regret before seeing the victory of the cause of building a thriving nation, the national reunification and the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche so ardently desired by him, but laid a strong political and military base for ensuring the steady advance of the Korean revolution through generations and provided a solid foundation for the eternal prosperity of the country and the nation.

Translation: he brainwashed an entire country into thinking it was the better-off half of the peninsula.

Standing in the van of the Korean revolution at present is Kim Jong Un, great successor to the revolutionary cause of Juche and outstanding leader of our party, army and people.

People last of course.

Kim Jong Un’s leadership provides a sure guarantee for creditably carrying to completion the revolutionary cause of Juche through generations, the cause started by Kim Il Sung and led byKim Jong Il to victory.

I’d suggest they look up “creditably” in the dictionary but… I’ll skip to the end. This thing is going on and on and on…

Arduous is the road for our revolution to follow and grim is the present situation. But no force on earth can check the revolutionary advance of our party, army and people under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un.

Arduous I say! No hardship is too great to force upon the peasants! Nothing can stop us… though if we run out of peasants on which to walk we might get our feet wet.

The heart of Kim Jong Il stopped beating, but his noble and august name and benevolent image will always be remembered by our army and people and his glorious history of revolutionary activities and undying feats will remain shining in the history of the country forever.-0-

Oh, he’ll be remembered for a while. Of that we can be pretty darn sure.

Far too seldom the enemies of Britain actually admit their real  goals. The greatly overpraised Professor Richard Dawkins (pictured) has now blurted out in a Left-wing magazine that his aim is to ‘destroy Christianity’. 

Well, I knew that, and you probably knew that – but the anti-religious lobby have until now always pretended that they were just nice, tolerant people. 

They’re not. They’re as intolerant as the Spanish Inquisition, but not yet ready to show it.

No sooner have the Americans withdrawn (most of) their forces from Iraq than another leader of an axis of evil country kicks the bucket.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced.

Mr Kim, who has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994, died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital, the announcement said.

He suffered a stroke in 2008 and was absent from public view for months.

His designated successor is believed to be his third son, Kim Jong-un, who is thought to be in his late 20s.

I’m sure conspiracy theorists will have fun with that coincidence.

Seems timely that Anti-Dismal posted this.

You have a button in front of you, placed there by a helpful genie. But instead of giving you the standard three wishes (and why doesn’t anybody ever wish for ten wishes?), the genie has limited your options.
If you push the button, the real income of all the “have-nots” in the world will double overnight.
Their health care will be twice as good as it is now, their disposable income will be twice as large, their houses will be twice as nice, and so on. But another consequence of pushing this button will also be the fact that the “haves” will see their prosperity increase ten-fold. They will all be ten times richer, thus enabling them to swank around all day.

To spell it out, this means that the divide between the rich and poor will widen, but will do so in a way that leaves the poor undeniably better off.

Fact is that rich people tend to have the resources and skills to maintain and grow their wealth. So it can hardly surprise us that the rich get richer.

The real issue is how poor are the poor. Can they afford food? Can they afford housing? Can they afford sanitation? But most importantly, can they make a path out of poverty?

The reality is that the poor actually are, in the long run, getting richer. Some years they get richer, and this statistic is mumbled or hidden. Some years they don’t, and the statistic is shouted from the rooftops.

Which is precisely why I have a category called “good new to ignore”.