I saw a sign on a car: <b>Rivers can't Regenerate</b>.

How wrong can you be.

The only reason rivers are is to regenerate.

Farewell Free Speech

It's been nice to know you.

The disgrace that is the current NZ government has just announced an upgrade and strengthening of "hate crime" laws.

Hate crime laws are thought crime laws, enacted based on a civil servants interpretation of what someone was thinking when they committed what often, based on actions in other countries such as the UK, are very minor misdemeanors, turning them into major crimes.

I would normally expect the centre/right of the blogosphere to react and oppose this announcement but it appears they are too busy masturbating over a shawl to do so right now.

The few remaining NZ thinkers, I hope, will start jumping up and down.

I'm not holding my breath.

Yesterday, in a report about the arrest of a "White Supremacist" (a new euphemism for someone who thinks independently and is not always perfectly behaved) the press noted that a 17year old has been effectively imprisoned for sharing a video once freely available on YouTube.

The report also stated that an 18year old has also been charged with a similar offense.

I've seen part of this video (of an actual event) and will be happy if I never see any of it again. I suspect most people both have and will be.

The video is seriously objectionable.

BUT

This is the state imprisoning citizens for exercising free speech.

Worse, because sharing a video on YouTube, no matter how objectionable, is not like standing on a soapbox on a street corner forcing everyone to hear an opinion, it is simply placing something in a place where the like-minded can access it if they so desire.

Only those who go looking for it will find it.

These arrests and prosecutions are, in fact, the actions seen in every police state in the last 100 years.

New Zealanders must resist this totalitarian action at all costs!