RMA: Ridiculous Metaphysical Act

The Thames poltergeist sham highlights the nonsense of allowing spiritual and metaphysical considerations to creep into our laws and judicial consideration, ACT New Zealand Environment and Conservation Spokesman Ken Shirley said today.

"It is clear in the Thames case that the resource consent applicant believes that elements from the local iwi are deliberating stirring up the ghost story to maximise their leverage against his development proposals.

"While we can scoff at the judiciary for entertaining such nonsense, the real culprit is the legislators who insert such nonsense into our laws.

"The ACT Party is campaigning to remove all metaphysical and spiritual considerations from the Resource Management Act, which is supposed to be focusing on the sustainable management of natural and physical resources - not spiritual and metaphysical elements," Mr Shirley said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>