Organics Is Not Entirely Natural.

Hawkes Bay Hospital has never been so full, with unprecedented demand for beds leaving some patients to be treated on beds in the corridors ... but this of course is not a true statement ... every year it happens and increasingly as organic pip fruit orcharding takes a greater hold, more than 50% of orchards now and the predominant spray is lime sulfur a respiratory irritant, mimics viral, flu like symptoms ... the old acid rain you know... and you can smell it in some of the wards ... because gases cannot be contained.

Mandatory screening of every infant proposed

Our Childrens' Commissioner wants, 'mandatory screening of every baby's home life in a bid to halve New Zealand's high child murder rate.'

Now this is really something like imposing on the many to better control the few ... and the basis for this ... Researcher Janet Fanslow says, 'home visitation is one of the only proven methods to reduce the child abuse rate. Parenting programmes also worked, but to a lesser extent.'

Perhaps I have missed something here, but I am sure a considerable number of children abused and killed over the years have been under CYF's supervision and/or care.

In addition there are always greater efficiencies to be made by targetting resources to where the problem is.

Surely this overinclusion isn't simply an endeavour to preserve a PC perspective?

A 'Biggie.'

Heard that a Family Court decision was recently appealed in the High Court in Rotorua and the decision reserved ... and this some three to four weeks ago.
Essentially the grandparents are endeavouring to force access on their terms (when, where, for how long, without parental oversight) in a situation where there are no care and protection issues at all. The child is reportedly doing exceptionally well educationally, in dancing, in sports and is quite gregarious.
Now the parents reason for caution is reportedly well-based and they have permitted access, albeit with parental supervision ... and this has not been availed upon.

Quite simply, if the decision goes in favour of the natural parents it supports the integrity of the nuclear family, of the natural rights of guardianship and custody to one's natural children, the ability to say with whom they can associate and under what conditions.
If the decision goes in favour of the grandparents, this is tantamount to social engineering ... the absolute undermining of parental rights.

That this case has got to the point it has, that the parents have had to appeal a family court decision to permit the grandparents to assert their wants over them (the natural parents), is indicative of the degree to which things can go when there is an absence of public scrutiny.

Watch for this case with the concern and fear it deserves ... it may just be that when you have grandparents making decisions at law, setting legal precedent, that they decide in favour of grandparents with whom they ally both educationally and in respect to age.

Justice For All?

Now many people have 'horrendous upbringings' and don't do this ... 'murdering a man in Pakuranga and wounding two women near Thames in 2003 with a samurai sword.'
' ... his jail term was excessive and the judge should have taken his horrendous upbringing into account when passing sentence.'
And beit that it was 'P' fuelled, or that he was 'mentally altered,' again is quite irrelevant ... many people use 'P' without exhibiting the excess this chappy did ... and many with 'truly psychotic conditions' don't do it either.
We have a justice system that pivots on the concept of individual responsibility, and yet our judiciary seem to constantly want to 'share the guilt.'
If this is the track that our 'wise men are treading' then perhaps rather than mitigating an 'appropriate sentence' these 'wise men' should look at incarcerating those they deem contributed to this mayhem - the 'P' supplier and 'parents,' and others that they in their infinite wisdom deem to have contributed - rather than reducing the sentence for a crime that others with similar or worse backgrounds would never commit ... and again leave the real victims of such crimes feeling hollow and robbed of justice.

Where Do they find These People??

Children who watch more than two hours of television a day are more likely to have attention problems as a teenager, a new study shows.
The study by researchers at Otago University is the first to look at long-term links between watching television as a young child and problems in adolescence.
It found that children who watched at least two hours of television a day were more likely to have short attention spans, and have difficulty concentrating on tasks.
The study has followed more than 1000 children born in Dunedin in 1972 and 1973.



Yep ... it stands to reason that something that requires protracted concentration should result in difficulty concentrating on tasks some years later ... 'practice does not make perfect!' (one must sort of wonder what the starting point was and what has occurred in the interim, though).

The ability to focus on video games for hours on end, similarly cannot improve 'concentration on tasks.' No... the quality and nature of the concentration is just sooo... different.

Mind you, it was only some twenty (or was it thirty) years ago that a lack of having a television was seen as disadvantaging children intellectually and hence educationally ... it provided greater exposure to a far greater vocabulary and experience than was available from their parents, from making their own toys and playing rugby with their mates .... and it still does.

Some of these people need to think a little before they are 'taken over' by the lure of publicity and the notion of appearing on the 'telly.' This nonsense will impact on our kids.

Snow Warning Helps Prevent Lambing Problems

Our man at Met Service, Bob McDavitt has come to the rescue of our primary producers once again ... ewes doing a ewe turn ... holding off 'till warmer climes. Well done Bob.

Huge Increase In Youth Bipolar Disorder Diagnoses Since 1994

In 1994 twenty-five per 100,000 people aged 19 and under were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in the USA. In 2004 the figure jumped to 1,003 per 100,000. The number of adults diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder during the same period almost doubled. You can read a report about this in Archives of General Psychiatry (JAMA/Archives), September issue ...
90.6% of the youths and 86.4% of the adults who were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder were prescribed medications for bipolar disorder, including mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics and antidepressants ... and New Zealand tends to follow ... what are these people doing to our self concepts, how we see ourselves ... reframing our behaviour such that they can ensure greater dependence on them by us and greater independence for them ... after all, diagnosis is really just a 'powerful other' ascribing certain qualities to what we do, defining it as illness and throwing psychotropics or other at it to reputedly try and quell it.
... and for those of you who believe, try googling those new, new generation SSRI's (seratonin reuptake inhibitors) or norepiniphrine reuptake inhibitors and also mortality rates in the USA ... now is it that medical iatrogenic effects constitute the leading rate of deaths in the country (760,000) or the third behind cardiac and cancers at 300,000? The effects of detachment, depersonalisation, those precursors to excess towards kids and other, the increased probability of self harm/mutilation suicide/homicide ... yep, and let them try to get off this stuff ... difficult to deprive people of the treatment of choice ... unethical in fact.
... and these self same guardians of public health can scream about tobacco, fast foods and obesity ... there may just be a touch of the hypocrite here somewhere?
perhaps we are at a point where the integrity of the FDA itself is questionable??