Nothing to fear, but fear itself

She had a kindly voice on the phone; I judged her to be elderly and her tone was not the least bit acrimonious. But she was not happy with me. In my last column I referred to her favourite political party as the “nutty Greens.” “I’m a Green supporter,” she said, “And I am definitely not nutty.” I explained that it was a play-upon-words. Most Green supporters I assumed were vegetarians and therefore ate lots of nuts to counteract...

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The Mad Hatters tea party

It’s called the House of Representatives and indeed it is. It represents the best and worst in us and our irrational MMP style of governance has exacerbated that. Recent events have emphasised the point.Maurice Williamson kicked it all off. Once the darling of the liberals after a homo-erotic speech supporting same-sex marriage he let his new-found friends down by interfering with the justice system in a phone call to the police...

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Kids, please don't do as I do

When the Palmerston North Squash Cub held a weekend tournament with a fancy dress cabaret in their clubrooms on the Saturday evening, the good-natured Masterton Police lent me two uniforms. A story I recounted in a column a few weeks ago.I have to point out ‘uniforms’ is a bit of an exaggeration; all we needed on a cold winters night were two great-coats and two helmets. We could supply the dark navy pants and substantial black shoes to...

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Endeavouring to understand Islam

Last week I listened to an address by a noted authority on Islam. He told us that this religion was growing at such a pace world-wide that in 25 years Muslims will outnumber Christians. I’m not sure if I’ll still be here in 25 years, but I’m working on it.The Western view of Islam has been understandably distorted by the 9/11 attack on America and reports of terrorism and suicide bombings we read about or see graphic images of most days...

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