Australia – Goldfire Media

Aussie man who drove down emus with ute sentenced to 42 days of prison

20-year-old Jacob McDonald, from Pinnaroo, South Australia, was tracked down by Australian police and the RSPCA last year after a video of him driving down emus at speeds greater than 120km/h went viral.

At first, there was a “nationwide manhunt” to find the man in the video. Then, McDonald appeared in court on the 9th of this month and was sentenced to 42 days in prison.

Some of the offences he was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, torment to animals, and killing protected wildlife. Ten emus were killed.

“You received pleasure from inflicting pain on defenseless animals,” said magistrate Michael King as he handed down MacDonald’s sentence.

MacDonald told The Daily Mail that the emus are quite destructive:

“I could show you some photos of the destruction the emus make down here. We’ve been in drought. We’re literally growing crops on about four inches of rain.”

“You’ve got these animals coming in and making a mess. Te reason there is so many on the road is because they’re looking for something to eat. And there’s nothing.”

“They’re just that poorly, they need to be put down.

“Here is what the RSPCA doesn’t understand, they go on about cruelty, they should come out here and have a look at the state of these animals … they’re not doing anything for them.”

According to Daily Mail, “Mr Macdonald cited a difficult period in his life, particularly over the four months before his crime, when he had a relationship breakdown with an ex-girlfriend. However, he insisted he wasn’t intending to be cruel to the native birds.”

Daily Mail also reported that, according to his ex-girlfriend who originally revealed that he was the man behind the video, he’s the “type to go hunting”:

‘He’s the type to go hunting, he grew up that way but this is just atrocious. I was shocked and speechless… angry mostly,’ she said.

After his identity was revealed, MacDonald apologised for his actions to the media:

“I realize now it was the wrong thing to do. I’ve never put an animal through suffering before. I know what I did wrong.”

By Penny Hoffmann

Aussie Liberal Party Candidate Kicked After “Extreme” Anti-Muslim Comment On Trump Post

Australian Federal police were asked to investigate the authenticity of social media posts reportedly made by now former Liberal party candidate Jessica Whelan in the comments section of a Donald Trump post.

Whelan denied she was behind the comments, saying her account was hacked and the content was digitally altered.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is popularly known as “Scomo”, issued the following statement to ABC news:

“The imagery that we have found that has been presented to us appears to have been doctored, and so what Jessica has done, this matter has been referred to the Australian Federal Police, and so that is a matter that will be… it is being referred i should say, to the police, and this is a matter that will be subject to an investigation.”

On May 3rd, News.com reported on Scomo’s “embarrassment” from backing Ms Whelan. Mr Morrison stated that the comments from her account do not represent the views of the Liberal party:

Journalist: Was the problem that her comments actually represent the views of some in the party. Her mistake was just putting it on social media?

PM: Her views were her views and they do not represent the views of the party I lead and they do not represent the views of the Liberal Party. These views were not disclosed to the Liberal Party at the time of her nomination, that was confirmed last night.

Journalist: They were aware yesterday?

PM: No, they weren’t, the information in front of us yesterday was not the information that we were able to receive overnight.

Journalist: Have you been lied to?

PM: Yes.

The Australian reports that the former Tasmanian candidate for Lyons has stated that she has received death threats toward her and her children from the social media scandal:

“I have been receiving threats to the level I could never have imagined. Phone calls, voicemails, messages and emails have made those close to me startled and afraid. These have included messages to kill my children and myself.

“It saddens me that people who put their hand up to represent the people of Australia are subjected to such vicious personal attacks from their opposition, born directly from their fear of losing.”

Whelan will run as an independent, though she will still be listed as a liberal party candidate on the ballot paper.

She has told The Examiner newspaper that “there’s a good chance” she will work with the Liberal party again:

“I have put in so much effort and I feel free of the Liberals to defend myself … If I’m elected, there’s a good chance I will work with the Liberal Party. I resigned because I knew I had to for the party, but I can now defend myself.”

Ms Whelan has stated that she does not want to be seen as a Pauline Hanson, meaning that Whelan likes multiculturalism in Australia.

Melbourne Labor party candidate Luke Creasey has also resigned after making offensive comments online, namely rape jokes, as well as lesbian and Catholic jokes.

“While I made those awful comments many years ago and they in no way reflect the views I hold today, I understand, especially as a member of the LGBTIQ community, that we need to be careful about what we share or like on social media.”

The following is a meme that was shared on Mr Creasey’s Facebook account in 2012. The school he worked at as a food technology teacher has stated that he was not employed when he shared the content.

Labor Party opposition leader Bill Shorten said Creasey’s circumstances are different to those of Ms Whelan’s:

“This Jessica Whelan, she said what she believes now, and it reflects on what she believes now,” Mr Shorten said of the then-candidate for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons, who has since resigned.

“What our fellow said, he said it seven years ago, when he was 22, and he’s clearly regretted and apologised for it.”

By Penny Hoffmann

FORMER AUSSIE PM RUDD: UK trading with the Commonwealth to make up for leaving the EU is “utter bollockS”

By Penny Hoffmann

Kevin Rudd, the 26th former Prime Minister of Australia, is sometimes a quite the unprofessional politician like many of Australia’s choices. Among various situations he has put himself in from being so down-to-earth, he has become a bit of a cheeky fella in the news and on the political stage for playing handball with school kids, needing a fitness instructor to lift him up for chin ups, being caught eating his ear wax during Question Time, and saluting George W. Bush at a NATO summit which “was just uhh… it was just a joke”.

Mr. Rudd’s take on brexit will surely ruffle the feathers of many brexiteers.

Rudd tweeted the following on March 11:

“With the clock ticking down to Brexit Day, here are my arguments in the London Guardian on why Britain should remain in the European Union. In contrast to Howard, Abbott and Downer cheering on the Brexiteers – all to reconstitute a British imperial rump.”

He stated in a recent article by The Guardian that swapping the current Britain-European Union trade agreement and relationship with a Britain-Commonwealth one is “the nuttiest of the many nutty arguments that have emerged from the Land of Hope and Glory set now masquerading as the authentic standard-bearers of British patriotism”:

“I’m struck, as the British parliament moves towards the endgame on Brexit, with the number of times Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India have been advanced by the Brexiteers in the public debate as magical alternatives to Britain’s current trade and investment relationship with the European Union. This is the nuttiest of the many nutty arguments that have emerged from the Land of Hope and Glory set now masquerading as the authentic standard-bearers of British patriotism. It’s utter bollocks.”

Rudd stated that Britain should remain in the European Union, and that “Labour and the Conservative remainers should unite to defer the exit date beyond 29 March 2019. They should then support legislation for a second referendum”.

Kevin Rudd describes brexit as a suicide note that will leave a large mark in world history:

“If Britain proceeds with giving effect to what future historians will legitimately describe as the longest suicide note in history by leaving the union, the cold, hard reality is that the mathematics simply don’t stack up in terms of credible economic alternatives to Europe. Much as any Australian, Canadian and New Zealand governments of whichever persuasion would do whatever they could to frame new free-trade agreements with the UK, the bottom line is that 65 million of us do not come within a bull’s roar of Britain’s adjacent market of 450 million Europeans.”

Remaining in the EU, according to Rudd, would benefit Britain economically and politically because authoritarians around the world seek to bring down the unification of Europe on things such as values, thus weakening the west.

Rudd supports a second referendum because it offers “a clear, informed choice between two tangible, concrete proposals: either voting for Theresa May’s deal, or for Britain to remain in the Union. That’s when I believe Britons’ native common sense, as well as their wider sense of international responsibility, would ultimately prevail”.

Rudd described Australian (“Oz”) brexiteers as having a goal of returning to old Anglo-Saxon times:

“They too, like the core of the British Brexiteers, are driven by a conservative political romanticism that we can all somehow go back to that ancient Arcadia of a white Anglo-Saxon world with “imperial preference”, all consummated by the solemnity of a Lord’s Test.”

Brexit day is scheduled for the 29th of March, 2019.

PINE GAP: The U.S Intelligence Facility in Australia

By Penny Hoffmann

Pine Gap is a U.S intelligence facility based in Alice Springs, Australia. It is located in the centre of Australia to make foreign interceptions difficult. It is most-likely the most important CIA intelligence collection station globally.

According to the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, Pine Gap plays a “vital role in the collection of a very wide range of signals intelligence, providing early warning ballistic missile launches, targetting of nuclear weapons, providing battlefield intelligence data for United States armed forces operating in Afghanistan and elsewhere (including previously in Iraq), critically supporting United States and Japanese missile defence, supporting arms control verification, and contributing targetting data to United States drone attacks”.

Pine Gap has three surveillance systems: fundamentally it is “the ground control station for geosynchronous signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellites developed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency”, but it also serves as a Relay Ground Station (RGS) which sends information regarding “U.S. missile launch detection/early warning satellites/Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR)” to U.S and Australian H.Q’s and command centres. Thirdly, Pine Gap has a foreign satelite and communications satelite interception function.

Pine Gap was first established by the United States in 1966 and became operational in 1970. The original mission was to collect information on the testing of Soviet missiles:

“During missile tests, information on the performance of various parts of the missile in flight is sent by radio signal to the test base. U.S. satellites in geo-stationary orbit sitting above the earth intercepted this missile telemetry, and downlinked the data to Pine Gap and other ground stations. That data was then processed into usable signals intelligence about the performance and capacities of new Soviet missiles.”

Pine Gap still collects information regarding foreign missile testing in places such as North Korea.

Pine Gap has undergone dramatic technological development:

“This has provided the technical basis for Pine Gap to provide data enabling the targeting of illegal U.S. drone attacks in countries with which the United States nor Australia are at war, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.”

FAKE NEWS: An In-Depth Analysis of the Role of the Media and it’s Corruption

By Penny Hoffmann

The media has a huge responsibility as they shape public opinion and affects history. By reporting on or ignoring events, the media contributes to the historical record. Fake news can lead to uprisings that may not even be necessary because the problem doesn’t exist.

In the words of famous author George Orwell in his novel 1984:

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

Sadly, many are unaware as to how the media works. Critical thinking in relation to the media, particularly in terms of how information is collected and reported on, needs to be encouraged.

In historian Louis Gottschalk’s book titled “Understanding History”, the information collection process is explained:

“Only a part of what was observed in the past has been remembered by those who observed it; only a part of what was remembered was recorded; only a part of what was recorded has survived; only a part of what has survived has come to the historian’s attention; only a part of what has come to their attention is credible; only a part of what is credible has been grasped; and only a part of what has been grasped can be expounded or narrated by the author.”

Prerecorded interviews have many advantages that mostly benefit the media. Editing quotes in interviews makes news reporting flow better and makes those involved look better, but nonetheless it manipulates what people have said. Important points can be left out.

An example of the media editing quotes via prerecorded interviews includes Isaac Butterfield’s interview on The Project in New Zealand.

Isaac Butterfield, an Australian YouTuber and comedian, featured on The Project New Zealand after Facebook took down his video, ‘The Actual Difference Between Australia and New Zealand’, because it was deemed to be racist.

In the interview, Isaac mentions the comedic nature of his video:

“These were polite jabs at the beautiful country of New Zealand.”

One of the hosts tried to dramatize Butterfield’s original video by asking if his content is suitable for his seven-year-old daughter:

“Do you target a specific audience, Isaac? I mean, do you worry who sees the videos? Would it be suitable for my seven-year-old daughter for instance?”

This was Butterfield’s response:

“Ah certainly not. But you as a parent should be in control of what your seven-year-old is watching. There’s far worse things on the internet than poor bearded old me.”

Isaac, in his YouTube video response, discussed the problem with prerecorded interviews; the footage can be edited to make the hosts and anyone the media likes have a better reputation:

“Now you may be wondering… that lady called me a jerk and i just said ‘thanks guys’ and smiled politely. That’s not how it actually happened, that’s an edit. I did hit her back with something, some type of joke, i can’t remember. I should have recorded it just for these type of purposes but, this is the thing with TV, is that they can edit it to make them look fantastic.”

Butterfield also discussed speaking time limits and how they do not capture the interviewee’s full view:

“So there’s a few things that annoyed me about that, was the way they spoke about me when i was off there and didn’t actually let me speak my mind on those certain subjects. Only having a minute and thirty seconds to get my point across… that’s just never going to happen.”

Before these interview even occur, those involved are told what they can and can’t say.

an Australian YouTuber known as “FriendlyJordies”, political commentator and comedian, called out the mainstream media and corporations masquerading as media for making irrelevant jokes and dodging important situations that nations face.

“You know what the media doesn’t do a lot of reporting on? Things that matter. Things that could affect, to quote that German Springfield historian, “you and your children and your children’s children.”

Newspaper journalism is also clearly not exempt from editing. During interviews, notes are either recorded via audio or a notepad. Newspapers are usually heavily structured in terms of the placement of photos, the word limit for the title, byline and general information, for aesthetic purposes. Editors review the articles that their journalists write and make the final alterations before publishing occurs.

To elaborate further, photos are placed in a sequence in order to prevent your eyes from running off the page. Poses by the interviewees for photos (smiles, handshakes, positioning of flags), camera angle, tweaking of photos via Photoshop for example, and choice of background all usually suit the desires of the writer and editor.

It is important to recognize corruption in the media because of it’s important role it has in regards to the historical record. It is usually difficult for beginner journalists to get media jobs, and, because of this, job seekers will sometimes do anything just to have some experience. This means that they can be subject to fraud.

In Queensland, the Federal Circuit Court ordered Touchpoint Media to pay $570,000 as they underpaid twenty three journalists.

Judge Tony Young stated this in his judgement:

“I am satisfied that there was an element of exploitation involved with young employees that would have been less likely to occur with older or more experienced employees.”

Some media companies may not even feature work experience journalists when it comes to photo credit or article drafting, so the author of the article could be the journalist who worked with the work experience student.

The media can be restricted in terms of what they can report on by the government. People who work for the government can even infiltrate the media. People from intelligence agencies have, in the past, employed journalists to collect information from media companies, and sometimes even disseminate misinformation to lead the public astray. This has happened in the US, for example (Operation Mockingbird) where reportedly three dozen American newsmen were either on the payroll or worked in some sort of contract relationship with the CIA beginning from 1973.

On April 27, 1996, the former CIA director who reported on this, William Colby, was found dead in the water after a canoe trip at Rock Point, Maryland. His death was reportedly “accidental”.

The media can even have a really important topic to discuss but not realize its importance by asking interviewees irrelevant questions. For example, Australian Labor politician Bill Shorten’s interview on The Project Australia.

Throughout the interview, Shorten was bringing up serious points, such as this one:

“What people want from me, and what people want from politics in general, is focus on policies that help everyday people.”

But what did one host respond with?

“But, hypothetically, would you think of putting heat lamps in the bathroom?”

Shorten only had less than three minutes to discuss how he is “trying to work out how to avoid another big wipeout, after the Liberals were crushed at the Victorian state election”. Why does irrelevant nonsense need to cut his time to speak? He has an important role as a politician; he helps to run the nation of Australia.

Here is another example of Shorten being asked useless questions during the interview:

Shorten: “Tell you what, the numbers on me were the same before the state election as they are now. But we’re doing pretty well. We’re doing well because we focus on people. More and more i’ve decided between now and the election, talk less about the government and more about the people. People just want us to get on with our jobs, and when your kids can’t get an apprenticeship, or your kids in their twenties and thirties are trying to buy their first home and they haven’t got enough for the deposit because the price of housing is high-”

Female host: “What about the'”

Shorten: “That’s what people are worried about, right?”

Female host: “Mr Shorten, well, what about your sausage eating style? Could that play into it? I mean…”

Some, maybe most or all mainstream media companies have access to police radio transmissions. This is to hear live events such as accidents, which is why the media knows where to arrive in order to cover them. The media is allowed to access this audio to check if emergency services are doing their jobs properly, but also to cover crimes done by the public.

There is a large problem with sponsor-media relations in regards to advertising. Sponsors pay media companies if their products are promoted via advertisement sections in newspapers, on the radio, and in television programs. The media benefits from it’s sponsors because they are their only source of income.

YouTuber FriendlyJordies called out Buzzfeed for not reporting on their own sponsor, Streets Icecream, cutting staff wages:

“When earlier this year Streets Icecream attempted to halve it’s staffs wages, which, thanks to the Liberal party is like chicks dying their hair pastel colours, what happened to the workers at Street’s Icecream could now happen to anyone on the wage, and Buzzfeed refused to report on it because Street’s Icecream sponsors Buzzfeed.”

When showing an article titled “Buzzfeed Crew Shocked to Discover They Have Testosterone Level of a 12-Year-Old Boy (Video)”, FriendlyJordies exposes the corruption mentioned above that many media organisations are guilty of doing, by responding with this:

“Think about how amoral these testosterone-deprived gollums must be when they willingly and consistently withhold information of that magnitude from their readers for money.”

This leads to the following question: who owns the media? The owners are not journalists themselves, or the editors who edit the articles, but rather sponsors who have the power to affect what is reported on via capitalism. Other than sponsors, the law also regulates what the media can and can’t do, but if media companies are subject to corporate powers such as the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), they are protected more.

Rupert Murdoch is an American-Australian media mogul. As the CEO of News Corp, Murdoch controls a media empire comprised of Fox News, The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal. These are just some of the many media companies.

The Battle Fought By Australia’s Soldiers During WW1

By Penny Hoffmann

Through statistics, technology, psychology, citizens reactions, and personal accounts, the reality of World War One is defined. It has been one hundred and four years since its beginning, and throughout those years the truth and of the war in general public conversation has been partially lost.

From April to July 1915, the number of people enlisting to fight in World War One increased exponentially. The monarchy was calling for unification, and patriotism was encouraged as seen in propaganda posters. Too many tried to enlist, thus many were turned back.

The first attempt of legalising conscription was narrowly defeated. Then, after July 1915, enlistment numbers dropped dramatically due to the large scale of casualties from war. This discouraged those initially wanting to enlist and there were less men able to fight because they had died.

Before repatriation, of the 331,000 who served overseas, 61,720 were killed and 155,000 were wounded. Of the 272,000 who returned, 170,000 suffered from wounds or illness from the war. 3,300 returned without arms of limbs.

Then, the second attempt of conscription occurred due to the number of casualties. Australia needed replacements, but conscription was defeated more than the first attempt. 70-80,000 soldiers received a full or part repatriation pension. Over 38,000 ex-servicemen died between 1918 and 1933, and right up to the Second World War, two to three ex-servicemen were dying every day. This is a byproduct of the unhygienic and highly stressful environment in the trenches as their feet were constantly wet, regular sighting of dead or dismembered bodies, the sound of their mates dying, and disease. There are 23,000 missing soldiers.

The war of 1917 resulted in the greatest technological and medical advancements to combat many types of wounds, but specifically head wounds. Because of how quickly someone can die from wounds to such a sensitive area, the medical team were located as close to the war-front as possible.

Teams were efficient with handling approximately twelve severe head wounds during twelve hours on duty that in total, two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty patients could be served a day. Confusion, signs of mental and physical exhaustion, acute fears, phobias, amnesia, tremor, deafness, speechlessness, visual defects and others were just some of the other issues the medical team dealt with.

The stressful war environment altered the soldiers for life and reprogrammed many into war machines, even during the repatriation process. Some were more dangerous than others to themselves or other people. Domestic violence, alcohol addictions, suicide or suicidal thoughts, shame, and labels were byproducts of the shift of environment from warzones to normal life, and many of these byproducts were due to the difficult healing process of the transition.

Consulting surgeon Sir William Arbuthnot Lane stated that “nothing was more painful than the sense of loneliness of those mutilated, since these deformities repelled even their wives and children. I understand that many, faced with the horror of the situation, committed suicide.”

An author states that “the peace following a war is worse than the war… when they returned to peace, as when they had gone to war, the soldiers were asked to adapt to accustomed ways. But the war had taught them a new system of values – mateship, the worth of the individual, courage, humor, straightforward action, generosity, determination, integrity and patriotism – which they could not easily apply to peace… it seemed to some that the war in Europe had created ‘a nation within a nation’ in the far antipodes”.

Those who suffered from head injuries and had facial reconstruction arguably felt worse when it came to social stigma; a face is where people look to for communication and feel attraction. Because of this, there were no mirrors in the medical rooms to prevent fainting.

Though not all soldiers faced the same level of difficulty adjusting to their new appearance.

Yes, Assange’s Extradition Threat to the U.S Is Real

By Penny Hoffmann

As Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is safe in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for six years now, it has been revealed that the United States Justice Department accidentally disclosed an indictment against him in a copy-paste mistake on Thursday 15th of November.

Greg Barns, adviser to Julian and Wikileaks, stated in a tweet “I have said for seven years @wikileaks Assange was being charged. The US has lied and lied denying it.”

Assistant US Attorney Kellen Dwyer stated that Assange’s indictment should have been concealed “until Assange is arrested”.

“”Due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.”

Eastern District of Virginia spokesman for the United States attorney’s office Joshua Stueve said to the New York Times that “the court filing was made in error”.

Because Assange is currently located in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy, he would need to be extradited to the U.S in order to be arrested.

Tension exists between founder and former editor of Wikileaks Mr. Assange and the Justice Department due to Wikileaks disclosures of secret U.S military and diplomatic documents.

Transgender Weightlifter Has Freak Accident Following Recent Criticism of Unfair Participation

By Stefan M. Kløvning

New Zealand – Male-to-female transgender Laurel Hubbard, formerly known as Gavin Hubbard, lost the gold medal in weightlifting for women in the Commonwealth Games on Monday, following making four new records and winning the Australian International weightlifting competition for women last year.

Hubbard was actually far ahead of her opponent, but failed trying to lift far more than was necessary. Feagaiga Stowers of Samoa, the nearest adversary, lifted 113kg, whereas Hubbard tried lifting 127 kg on the road to setting personal and Commonwealth record by lifting 132 kg. Failing to lift this, she suffered a ‘horror elbow injury’ so painful that she had to withdraw from the games.

Still on the team of New Zealand, Laurel is now participating on the women’s team after having been judged eligible to compete on the women’s team last year by showing that her testosterone levels were below those required by the International Olympic Committee.

The head coach of Samoa, the team of the nearest adversary to Hubbard, objected, asserting that ‘the strength is still there and I think it’s very unfair, and for all females it’s unfair.’ The Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand President Garry Marshall agrees, saying that ‘She competed as a long time for a man and her efforts were very strong. That strength has remained with her, despite testosterone. That point is not recognized by the science and some of our competitors would say that’s not fair.’

Other competitors, however, take it lighter, as bronze medalist Kaitlyn Fassina, who conceded about Hubbard after her winning the Australian International weightlifting competition last year that ‘She is who she is. That’s the way the politics…and what the New Zealanders have decided. I can’t say much more than that. She is seen as female and that’s the way it is.’ Some also congratulated Hubbard for her victory.

Hubbard participating and doing so well in these weightlifting competitions has revived a debate about transgender participation in such competitive sports were one gender naturally has a predisposed advantage over the other. Deborah Acason, a two-time weightlifting Olympian, complained that ‘If I was in that category I wouldn’t feel like I was in an equal situation. I just feel that if it’s not even why are we doing the sport?’ After the competition she won in Australia last year, the Australian Weightlifting Federation chief executive Michael Keelan called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Commonwealth Games Federation to rewrite the rule book that has allowed Hubbard to compete on the Gold Coast.

The same concerns arised after a high school boy identifying as a girl won all-state honors in Alaska’s female track and field division last June. The mother of one of the girls wiped out in the state finals exclaimed about her child: ‘She was upset. How do you explain to her that not only does she need to train to beat her fellow female athletes now she should also train to beat the males?’ She added with a warning that ‘I believe parents and athletes alike should be worried. Transgender males being allowed to compete in female events are being afforded an unfair advantage. Males are physically different than females. That’s a scientific fact. Hormones and body modification cannot change that. Today it’s one transgender athlete. Tomorrow it could be half the field.’

It’s a trend you can only either love or hate. Kris Shannon of the Washington Herald admired Hubbard, saying ‘No other athlete shines as bright a beacon for inspiration and equality as Hubbard. And no other athlete at these Games is as important, given the gradual fight for LGBT rights in and outside of sport,’ adding that she ‘should be elevated to the flagbearing position as a point of undisputed pride within the New Zealand team’ if she won the gold medal.

This is a part of a bigger picture. In the continual advocacy of LGBT acceptance and rights on the Left, this is one of the matters it implicates which should make us stop for a moment and consider whether this is really the road which we want our society to follow. Human rights and tolerance advocated in the 20th century produced indeed great results, but is it much more to be done here in our time, or is this, and the rest of today’s movement, going too far?