Lindsay Perigo on Radio Live: Barking madness

This should have been Lindsay Perigo's editorial on Radio Live this afternoon,(or at least it would have been if they could have got the feed up):

There’s a lot of it about. Barking madness, I mean. Some of it’s good, most of it is innocently bonkers, some of it is quite intentionally evil.

Michael Cullen has certainly gone barking mad. Earlier this week the flaky Finance Minister went nuts at press gallery journalists for letting their own desire for tax cuts get in the way of their objectivity in reporting the issue. This after a catastrophic poll showing Labour trailing National by nine points, after omitting tax cuts from the latest budget, notwithstanding that they take $9 billion more of our money than they spend so lovingly on our welfare.

Now Mad Michael must surely know that it not only is it in fact the first recourse of a desperate politician to blame the media for his woes, but it’s also seen to be by voters, notwithstanding their quite extraordinary stupidity— so his impromptu tirade will send his fortunes plummeting further. But even crazier is his claim that journalists in general and those he singled out in particular, are in favour of tax cuts. At least three of those and 99% of all journalists are raving lefties who’d probably favour tax increases, especially for the evil rich.

The idea that the current Fourth Estate, and the supinely subservient press gallery in particular, are zealous protectors of our liberty and our money from the greedy intrusiveness of Big Government is ludicrous. Crazy Cullen was screaming at his own allies. Barking mad. Bad.

Of course, another early recourse of desperate politicians is to question the patriotism of their adversaries. National leader Don Brash, showing an unusual aptitude for a good one-liner, which we should probably attribute to his speechwriter, said that Labour does indeed believe there’s a place for tax cuts—it’s called Australia. That hurt. Helen Clark’s response? Don’s a traitor, who wants our kids to grow up cheering the Wallabies. Why doesn’t he go live across the ditch himself if he thinks it’s so great over there? she demanded. Potty, potty Prime Minister! Fact—Kiwis are heading for Australia in record numbers; 34,000 in the year ended March. Fact—they ‘re going because they can work hard over there and retain much more of their earnings in their own pockets. It’s not that Australia is some sort of Small Government El Dorado—it isn’t; it’s just that its government has less of a Soviet mindset than the one in Helengrad. Don Brash wants to stem the tide and see hard workers better rewarded in New Zealand. For that he’s unpatriotic? Potty, potty Prime Minister. Barking mad. Bad.

An example of barking mad, good, was the protest by hundreds of feisty farmers in the McKenzie country against the imminently compulsory micro-chipping of dogs, replete with their own dogs barking up a storm. The farmers are mad at the pointless cost and inconvenience of this idiotic procedure, as well they might be. Barking mad dogs will be no more controllable or trackable because of compulsory micro-chipping, whose only tangible result will be more money in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats. My question is, how long before the dinky dictators in the Beehive want to microchip us? The only humans who ought to be microchipped are politicians and bureaucrats themselves, and certain other types of criminal. Farmers seem to grasp this. Here’s hoping they’re as successful in their campaign against micro-chipping as they were against the stinky Fart Tax. Farmers. Barking mad, good.

Barking mad bad is par for the course in a country where funny Toyota ads get pulled, folk get fined for cutting down their own trees, bureaucrats tell you what colour you may paint your house, progress grinds to a halt because of taniwha, barking mad Muslims and Catholics unite in their efforts to end free speech, the Green Party elects a red co-leader, Rodney Hide doesn’t get eliminated immediately for his embarrassing jerking-off in Dancing with the Stars because the ACT Party are skewing the voting (notwithstanding the excellent observation of Paul Mercurio: “Krystal, you’re hot; Rodney, you’re not”) and so on … but we can take heart from the fact that it’s not just us—the whole world has gone barking mad.

Out of Seattle this week we learned that those in charge of public schools there regard individualism as a form of racism. Yes folks, you heard me right. Racism, according to Seattle Public Schools, includes “having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.” Now, I don’t think even Steve Maharey or Trevor Mallard have gone that barking mad, though the epidemic of so-called Attention Deficit Disorder among the young would suggest that our public schools are doing a great job of inoculating youngsters against a future time orientation. Happily this particular piece of barking madness has been rescinded after a public uproar. One Caprice D. Hollins (she’d have to be barking mad with a name like that), Director of Equity and Race Relations for Seattle Public Schools, has announced:

In response to the numerous concerns voiced regarding definitions posted on the Equity & Race website, we have decided to revise our website in a way that will hopefully provide more context to readers around the work that Seattle Public Schools is doing to address institutional racism. The intended purpose of our work in the area of race and social justice is to bring communities together through open dialogue and honest reflection around what is meant by racism and the impact is has on our society and more specifically, our students. …

Thank you for sharing your concerns. Warm regards, Caprice D. Hollins, Psy.D., 'Director of Equity & Race Relations'
Seattle Public Schools.

Unfortunately, that’s only a temporary tactical retreat. The world is run by the likes of Caprice D. Hollins.

I presume “Psy.D.” is some sort of psychology degree. Psychologists, of course, are all barking mad. They’re a mixture of lunacy and charlatanry. Here’s one, Marc Wilson, a lecturer in psychology in fact at Victoria University, quoted in the paper today, about what would motivate someone to pay $22,750 at auction for the handbag (pictured right) with which Tana Umaga subdued his rampaging colleague Chris Masoe:

By having the bag to hold and rub and take to bed with you, you are able to live some of that out.

Some of what out? Just what does Marc Wilson think the successful bidder wants to do with the bag? Remember, dear taxpaying listener, you and I are paying this witchdoctor to intone such hocus-pocus. Barking mad, bad.

Yes, there’s a lot of it about. Help me fight it. Raise your voice of sanity right here on Radio Live: 0800 723465

UPDATE 1: It looks as if the broadcast feed from Helengrad is off for the afternoon, so you''ll have to do without Perigo live on Radio Live, this week at least.

UPDATE 2: Revised and updated version of editorial posted.

TAGS: Politics-NZ, Politics, Nonsense, Education, Racism