And the left go ballistic.

Margo and her pixies are beside themselves with this news and have penned a letter to the Appeal of Conscience organization in New York

The Honorable John Howard will receive the World Statesman Award for his “inspiring leadership that has made Australia a beacon of democracy, religious freedom and human rights and for his courageous stand against international terrorism,” Rabbi Schneier said. Serving as Australian Prime Minister since 1996, Howard most recently announced Australia’s partnership in the Asia-Pacific Partnership On Clean Development and Climate, an enterprise devoted to addressing the challenges of climate change, energy security and air pollution in a way that strives to encourage economic development and reduce poverty in developing nations.

It’s not a big deal to me and most probably isn’t to Howard either but it is worth the effort and time involved just to read the left’s vitriol. Although, on reflection, the way Howard upsets the left should make him a shoe-in for the award.

Past recipients of the World Statesman Award include Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, President of the Government of Spain José Maria Aznar, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Republic of Korea President Kim Dae-jung, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Presidents Cardoso, Gorbachev, Havel, and von Weizsaeker, Chancellor Schroeder, as well as Prime Ministers Prodi and Thatcher.

A small quote from the letter;

Mr Howard’s anti-terrorism laws have targeted Australian Muslims. These laws give extraordinary powers which are intrusive and demonise the Muslim community.

I doubt if Rabbi Arthur Schneier, founder and president, would have bothered reading past this accusation.

Like the cousins every family has that we keep under wraps. NZ has confirmed its irrelevance in the modern world. It would appear that Hulun Cluck is on the verge of taking power again even if she does have a reduced minority.

49% of Kiwis have voted left and I will now just leave them to their own devices. Talking to Kiwi friends in Australia I can only imagine that yesterdays vote is one of the main reason they, and so many of their countrymen are in Australia.

A reader at Tim Blair says it all

The sad thing is, NZ used to be an example about how we could be. Now it is being left behind. The wages gap, and the constant migration of skilled workers to OZ leaves it exposed to the risk of being nothing more than a retirement village used as a transit point for pacific islanders on their way to migrate to Australia.

Sad, but it’s their call.

Early December two years ago I said;

If Martin Luther King had a dream, I have nightmare. Latham leading Australia to insignificence via embarrassment. I accept youth , vigour and aggression but the subject has to be house trained first.

Nothing has happened since that day to change my mind.

Latham was so second class I can only imagine most of the decent men in the ALP squirm when they think how they were snowballed into electing Latham as their leader.

His schoolboy utterences when he was leader are now being recycled without the benefit of any external editing. With vitriol in spades he attacks everyone he ever met, but whereas I don’t think the ALP team are winners, at least they are house trained.

A failed experiment, a blot on our history and an embarrassment. The press need to stop giving him oxygen – just let the whirlpool in his own small mind screw him from the scene forever.

From Janet Albrechtsen in todays Australian in an article headed Left unread on the shelf.

They still have not worked out that voters view tired old leftist policies much the same as Edward O. Wilson, an expert on ants, described Marxism:

“Wonderful theory. Wrong species.”

From Mat Price in the Sketch

Ignoring Beazley’s antics, the Treasurer read a blurb from Mark Latham’s forthcoming memoirs, which are said to be less than flattering about his ex-colleagues.

“Maybe you could read it to your children,” Costello suggested to the opposing benches.