Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

The peculiar but entertaining behaviour of Dame Susan continues, with a couple more weird gaffes surfacing from the Human Rights Commissioner this week.

First up was a meeting of local business women, at which she's reported to have made a wisecrack about The Weekend Sun. As faithfully relayed by the hordes of RR readers attending, it seems the Dame gave advice to women on how to make a difference on matters they felt strongly about.

Writing letters to the editor was amongst those suggestions, to which she supposedly dissed The Weekend Sun, saying the paper wouldn't print her letters.

This, of course, is laughable, since it was a published letter to The Sun from the Dame that raised the ire of many readers a year or so back. And we jam as many letters into the page as possible each week.

In fact, it has been the Dame's lack of comment on any matters since that shows it's the commissioner, not the newspaper, playing the snooty public servant game.

Let's recap. Dame Susan abused the privilege of her office by writing on the commission's letterhead, using public funded staff and facilities, to grizzle about content in this column, but signed as a Tauranga ratepayer. In other words, using the power, authority, assets, and benefits of public office to make a personal complaint.
Here's some sound advice to anyone wanting to make a difference, feel free to drop a line to the Sun (letters @thesun.co.nz) and provided it isn't obscene or defamatory, we'll publish it.

Patron of PC

Meanwhile, the Dame is in the firing line for trying to undermine Christmas.

In another lofty role, as patron of the Auckland Regional Migrants Services, she's apparently backing their policy of avoiding the word ‘Christmas'.

This is part of the PC brigade's efforts to bend over backwards to avoid upsetting new arrivals to the country, who might find Christmas offensive.

A very good article in Granny Herald, by columnist Brian Rudman, explains. ‘Dame Susan wants to save me, and the majority of New Zealanders who are not Christian, from feeling excluded at this time of year. Let me assure her that as long as the sun shines, the wine flows, and there's plenty of pork crackling, I don't care what the season is called.'

The ARMS people are pushing for Christmas to be replaced with ‘happy holidays' or ‘season's greetings' and Christmas dinner is being replaced with ‘festive lunch'.
RR has filed this in the 'crock of shite” category.

If migrants don't like what they find here, I can recommend several good airports.
We should have signs at every point of entry, explaining: 'This country celebrates Christmas, even the heathens and may contain traces of nuts.”

Seriously though, we stop everything else at the border. Animals, insects, fruit and vege, fruit flies, and the occasional bad-ass rock star. Why shouldn't we also stop bad attitudes? If you don't like the culture and customs of the nation you are entering, go somewhere else. I don't expect other countries to bend to my particular beliefs and customs when I visit, or heaven forbid, emigrate.

Why should Kiwis accept it?

Worthwhile issues

Here at the RR Politically Corrupt Headquarters, we reckon it's time the commission and its highly paid officials found something worthwhile to do. There's some real issues out there that need some highly funded attention; stop undermining Christmas, Christians and even the non-believers... who just like to have a good old family Christmas in any tradition they like.

Use your energy to perhaps save an endangered species. Help ban the public sale of fireworks. Go find a cure for cancer, war, radical extremists, murderers, or gout... even figure out a way to re-unite socks into their original pairs.

That would be more useful than denigrating the culture of the masses of ordinary, law abiding, peace-loving, tax paying (mostly) Kiwi folk.

Our persistent contributor Tyler, so perplexed by the Dame's latest stance, says perhaps she is confused about race and religion, which of course are two different things.

Tyler has penned this new version of …

The Night Before Christmas

At the offices of the race relations commissioner,
on the evening of 24 December...

'Twas the night before something
And like all through the year
Nothing was happening
No real work is done here

The fax was shut down
The computers turned off
And gone home for more holidays
Those snouts in the trough

No drinks in the office
No cabinets of booze
Teetotallers could be offended
The next edict from Dame Suze?

As race relations commissioner
She stood hale and hearty
Her qualifications for office?
Ask the National Party

All language must be PC
No wise men, stars or manger
Potentially offensive terms
They're the real danger

Then just outside the window
I spied with my eyes
Not a fat jolly Santa
But an ethnically non-specific neutrally-gendered person of size!

I heard him exclaim
Not wishing to offend her
'Happy nothing in particular to all”
As approved by the commissioner - TT

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