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Marc Alexander - Latest News [Page 2]
Marc My Words - The empire strikes back.again
Friday, 30 March 2007, 4:00 pm | Marc Alexander
The last few weeks have highlighted a sharp contrast between National party leader John Key and Labour's Helen Clark. Key has been in the headlines for wanting to reach out to the growing New Zealand underclass. In particular, he kick-started an initiative ... More >>
Children do not belong to the state
Friday, 16 March 2007, 11:14 am | Marc Alexander
While the current focus is on the implicitly intrusive 'spanking legislation', a wider debate has been largely ignored: namely, the differentiating role of both government and parent in raising children. The largely informational approach of successive ... More >>
Marc My Words - 9 March 2007
Friday, 9 March 2007, 2:03 pm | Marc Alexander
The Graeme Burton case is a bungle from beginning to end. Even this weeks report on the Parole Board's and Corrections handling of the criminals release has failed to get at the core problems. More >>
Marc Alexander - Smacking away parental rights
Friday, 23 February 2007, 4:54 pm | Marc Alexander
Seems to me we’ve let the lunatics have free reign in parliament. Sue Bradford's private members bill to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act was backed by Labour, the rest of the Greens, the leader of the so-called Progressives and United last ... More >>
Marc My Words: Welcome to Deadwood
Monday, 12 February 2007, 2:44 pm | Marc Alexander
The birth of a new political year always brings as much apprehension as anticipation. And just as in the real world, almost always with a string attached. Whatever respite the Labour ministers have enjoyed over the break, they return this week to the start ... More >>
Marc My Words: The greatest changes start with us
Friday, 22 December 2006, 10:22 am | Marc Alexander
Christmas can sometimes bring out the worst in us. Often a time of stress, many of us succumb to ruefully reflecting on our lack of impact on the world; made worse, I suspect, by the temptation of the copious quantities of wine we imbibe as anesthetic ... More >>
Enslaved by the re-imagination of our past
Friday, 8 December 2006, 11:29 am | Marc Alexander
Marc My Words… 8 December 2006 Political comment By Marc Alexander We are all enslaved by the re-imagination of our past More >>
Marc My Words: The enemy of success is envy
Friday, 1 December 2006, 1:34 pm | Marc Alexander
The media is often a weapon of mass distraction. Particularly when the public are encouraged to spew their intolerance in print in the form of letters to the editor, the print equivalent of talkback or ranting on the village green. The thing about ... More >>
Marc My Words: Leadership is knowing when to lead
Friday, 24 November 2006, 3:46 pm | Marc Alexander
And so it finally happened. Don Brash resigned gracefully with humility and dignity from the leadership he held for three years. He leaves the position having doubled support for National, increased its membership and, more importantly, ahead of Labour ... More >>
Marc My Words: Nglish 8nt wot it yousd to B
Monday, 13 November 2006, 9:02 am | Marc Alexander
Language changes. Over time it subtly shifts, accepts fresh modern shades of meaning and, of course, new words. Other expressions, like spurned lovers, are left by the wayside to collect dust, creating interest amongst semantic archaeologists who re-discover ... More >>
Marc My Words…absurd thoughts of Chairman Trotter
Friday, 27 October 2006, 12:56 am | Marc Alexander
Isn't Chris Trotter a silly bugger? He seems to spend every waking moment excusing the Labour government of anything and everything they do without a hint of self-mockery. He appears to be cocooned in an imaginary universe where the only real life is the ... More >>
Marc My Words: Labour's modus operandi
Friday, 20 October 2006, 12:02 am | Marc Alexander
The Helen Clark government seems to believe that freedom of speech is a wonderful thing - until the other guy talks too much. Her response then proves the maxim that the weaker the argument the stronger the words should be. Or, at least, legislate ... More >>
Marc My Words: Ideology is no match for stupidity
Friday, 13 October 2006, 11:00 am | Marc Alexander
At a meeting of health professionals last Wednesday, two Auckland University 'experts' rattled off the predictable litany of Western cultural sins responsible for the deplorable risk factors of Maori and pacific families. All the usual suspects were trotted out: ... More >>
Marc My Words: Indigestion biting hand that feeds
Friday, 6 October 2006, 11:34 am | Marc Alexander
The Labour government seems to see nothing wrong with power so long as only they are the ones exercising it. That may be true for any administration that sets itself up as the sole arbiter of a nation's destiny but we do need to have robust safeguards. ... More >>
Marc My Words: What a tangled web we weave...
Friday, 29 September 2006, 11:08 am | Marc Alexander
When power becomes an end in itself, principle becomes an inconvenience to step around in much the same way as picnickers in high heels avoid cow pats. But sooner rather than later you might succeed in circumventing the calf's offering only to fall face-first ... More >>
Marc My Words: Clark - a gooey meltdown, more nuts
Friday, 22 September 2006, 10:19 am | Marc Alexander
Hands up all those who have had a gutsful of Ms Clark blaming everybody but herself for lowering the bar on governmental accountability? Yeah, me too. Having just called for a truce for all the recent mud-slinging, Clark goes on record saying that Don ... More >>
Marc My Words - 14 September 2006
Thursday, 14 September 2006, 2:25 pm | Marc Alexander
The art of political debate has lost its aesthetics lately. Sadly it happens from time to time. The only real cure is to starve it of oxygen and let the fire die off. Then we can get back to business. More >>
Marc My Words: Do you take milk with your Koha?
Friday, 8 September 2006, 1:32 pm | Marc Alexander
What the government has been up to lately is no less than a full frontal assault on the nut-sack of the public they are meant to serve. It seems that nothing brings out the true character of a government than when it's under fire. All the more so ... More >>
Marc My Words: Itches for public office, in palms
Friday, 1 September 2006, 1:15 pm | Marc Alexander
It's pretty clear no-one needs to lead Taito Phillip Field into temptation. He can do that all by himself. His position as an MP is untenable. Allegations include falsifying a Samoan birth certificate, accepting payments that augment his $130,000 MP's salary ... More >>
Marc My Words - 25 August 2006
Friday, 25 August 2006, 2:03 pm | Marc Alexander
How things change! When I went to school I was strapped, canned, made to clean the school grounds and subject to a whole menu of interesting torments to correct my behaviour. More >>
