My paternal grandfather ("pake" in Frisian) passed away at home aged 76 in the early hours of December 22nd after a long illness. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer eight years ago and was given nine months to live.
As part of public religious displays that Iowa allows in its state capitol, The Satanic Temple set up a display of Baphomet. This isn't the first time that has happened.
A few weeks ago, while the coalition was still negotiating, I wrote about the "measure of success" that the government would need to achieve. After its formation I started work on tracking their commitments.
We have a new government and they've made a lot of promises. The two documents between National-ACT and National-NZFirst contain a total of 213 different commitments with measurable outcomes.
While the election results were finalised, and then re-finalised once a journalist found a host of errors, the coalition negotiations carried on quietly. They may be finished by the time this column gets published or they may go on for weeks.
The complete annihilation of Labour was great to see, but the election as a whole was a mixed bag. The young progressives turned out well for the Greens and the Maori Party.
Like many women, my wife Amie likes to watch Instagram reels. These are little clips, mostly from the lives of women, where the algorithm figures out what you like and feeds you more of it.
My EasyVote pack has arrived and early voting is about to start, so it must be a good time to examine the list of parties on the menu this election, in the order they are presented in the voting pack.
"... If you're going to treat us like some new breed that's just arrived here, and wipe out our rights, there will be trouble in this country … Tonight, when you go to bed, 25% of all babies under 5 have Maori descent.
I've been biking, using a pedal-assist e-bike, around Auckland since early February 2021. While I was born in the biking Mecca known as Holland, I had always been sceptical of biking here and claimed it would never work.
Family First has released their usual information guide for voters. It shows how politicians have voted on social issues and how party leaders say they would vote on those issues or potential issues today.
Bob McCroskie made a video titled "United they stand, divided they…" calling for "conservative-leaning" parties to work together along an Alliance-style setup. We've talked about this and it hasn't worked.
I'll start with a few disclaimers: I have been critical of the various political factions that came out of the "freedom movement" of NZ's COVID policies, and I am of course a card-carrying member and the secretary-general of the New Conservatives.
Last week I wrote that the left-wing was fundamentally about making all things equal in a race to the bottom: an ideology of the lowest common denominator.
