Vegans tend to be extreme in their veganism. You'd have to be to believe that a beetroot-based birthday cake is acceptable. Stories of shared accommodation in which the vegan flatties refuse to keep their food in a fridge that also holds meat or dairy products are not uncommon.
People who hold extreme views tend to be a bit judgy. This is only natural. The more extreme your beliefs are, the more insecure you will be about them.
You can't afford to have them questioned because they don't hold up to close scrutiny, so you have to come down hard on anyone who thinks differently.
Which is what lay behind the trouble Palmerston North City council and Sublime coffee got into when their planned "egg-themed event" offended at least one local vegan.
In what apparently would pass for fun in Palmerston North, people were invited to paint eggs in a street mural.
This was felt to endorse cruel poultry practices. It did no such thing of course but such is the level of sensitivity to everyone else's sensitivities in the current social climate that in no time at all the event was called off.
Vegans are presumably feeling a lot better, with their sense of entitlement and pride in themselves as a brave and struggling minority sated.
They can go back to planning complicated routes through the supermarket that avoid the meat and dairy departments when doing their shopping.
The Palmerston North event was repurposed into one called Adopt a Dot. So far, there are no reports of complains from people with spots.
Flat earth society
If you're collecting evidence that there's no hope for the planet, you'll be interested to know that an astonishing 13 mayors – grown up people who can apparently perform such complicated actions as walking and talking - either would not say or refused to answer when asked whether they believe that "human activity contributes to climate change".
The mayors presumably also take care not to travel too far in any one direction in case they fall off the Earth.
This gives some context to the otherwise odd behaviour of those politicians who slammed children for protesting against inaction on climate change.
Those in power have no intention of doing anything realistic about this and the sooner those annoying kids realise this the better.
Credit to his school
Macleans College old boy Jayson Fong has come to the attention of school authorities in murky circumstances.
The go-getting youngster has been undercutting the Auckland school's second-hand uniform trade, flogging off the clobber at a lower price than the schools own recycling boutique.
The school isn't happy that he obtained a large number of student email addresses to promote his business.
But rather than being thankful that he has exposed this security flaw, one of their representatives allegedly threatened him with deportation, a penalty most would agree is out of proportion with the offence.
What's more surprising is that the school hasn't noted his initiative, enterprise and independence – qualities all parents would like their kids to have by the time they finish their education.
Fong is a credit to his school.
