And A Little Child Shall Lead Them...AND ABOUT TIME/NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON

Only when our kids are vitally affected do we tend to act...but the straw that breaks the camel's back has now been snapped, and in a thoroughly unpolitical, non-partisan, almost apolitical  fashion President Barack Obama has taken the lead...to finally do something...about America's sorry record of civilian violence. He has stepped up to the mark at a turning point in U.S. history and shown the one quality essential in a true leader: yes, leadership. At this pivotal moment. And it's uncannily, eerily, almost palpable - even from afar, via the omnipresent television set - that the nation is, silently but ever so staunchly, right behind him; backing him 100%. In much the same way the entire nation, and much of the world, stood full square behind President George W Bush in the seconds, minutes, hours and  days immediately following 9/11. As J R R Tolkien's Samwise Gamgee might have put it: "You've shown your quality, Mr President."

Yes, it could, ever so easily and glibly, quite legitimately be asked: Well, what else could President Obama have done? The answer is: absolutely nothing. Precisely what has been done - for all too long. The point is he hasn't; that's the difference.

Yes, Obama's only taken slight - though not at all hesitant - very tentative steps...thus far. But 'from small beginnings great things may come'. As the 'ole ditty puts it: 'It only takes a spark to get a fire going...'.

All Hail To Our Own Home-grown "Leader of Men": Peter Jackson - JRR Tolkien Fantasy Works Adaptor Extraordinaire

R Rating: Meant only for those who have already seen the film. (Unless one has no intention of going, in which case my various comments will be well-nigh meaningless anyway.)

Necessary Disclaimer: I'll admit I'm not a film reviewer by trade or hobby, but as a lover of The Hobbit - rereading it multiple times, including during the recent run-up to its grand premiering - my passionate interest and 'jealousy', as in loyalty, to Tolkien's writing makes me a fair judge, I believe. Much as sports fans and automobile enthusiasts are a reasonable source to consult when it comes to judging the merits of a particular team, game and/or performance. And best I can recall the few book and film reviews I did while taking creative English writing classes at our local varsity a decade or so ago were judged reasonable enough.

Hugely conscious that Low-Lifers Anonymous, certain doctrinaire partisan political ideologues, elitist film critics and literary purists, and other signed-up and sealed members of Peter Jackson Knockers Incorporated (both domestic and global) are busily crawling out of their snake-pits to spout their vitriolic venom at Sir Peter and spread their snivelly slime (read: 'snot' - and not the troll variety) upon his new creation and infect the body populace with their viral viciousness as I write - just for starters, let me declare, vis-a-vis The Hobbit film #1: Overall, a *supercalifragilisticexpialidocious kinda flick - 'wunderbar' as the Germans (apparently 'as a nation'  huge fans of the (**most recent) film adaptation of J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy) would say. (*My local library assures me of the correctness of this spelling!**There actually was an animated two-hour version of Tolkien's LOTR in 1978, largely unknown and for good reason long since faded into obscurity.)

The following features were what particularly grabbed me - and held me fast - in viewing the film: 3D High Frame Rate the day it premiered nationwide (Wednesday, December 12th, but no midnight session for me); and again yesterday evening on my 48th birthday, the 18th of December, when I saw it in simple, good 'ole-fashioned 2D, and was pleasantly surprised to find it had already grown hugely upon me in less than a week. So how do I rate it, as one humble pleb among a nation, indeed world, of such viewers? In visual impact, simply superb, even breathtakingly brilliant, quite literally out of this world - if not that of Middle Earth. Here I include the scenery (surpassing all 3 ***'predecessor' Lord Of The Rings' films in toto), costuming, special effects (revisiting good 'ole CGI), dramatic tension and resolution, colour, lighting etc. As with the Rings' films, the various flashback scenes are almost flawlessly enacted and moreover are brilliantly 'cut' and weaved rather seamlessly into the surrounding story, especially the various introductory scenes of the Lonely Mountain and the assorted dwarf versus orc and goblin battle royales. In characterization (both casting and acting delivery): off the charts, yes, you'll even want to write home about it; especially the main character/ hero, Bilbo Baggins, ("Bagginses" to Gollum), played by Martin Freeman. (***In chronology of production and release, admittedly, but actually 'successors' in the real time of Middle Earth.)

What can one say? This was and is and will no doubt prove to be throughout the remainder of the films, a brilliant typecast by Peter Jackson - whose unfailing instincts failed to fail him yet again. (Yours Truly early on sent Peter Jackson (even if, I suppose, it's extremely doubtful he ever saw it) a photo (magazine shot) of a potential (indeed lookalike) Bilbo Baggins - an American by the 'unreal' name of Bob Gass, who was the absolute spitting image of that older Bilbo (Senior - who appears in both the Rings' trilogy and the start of this film).) Seeing as, since finding the ring, Bilbo wasn't supposed to have aged at all, I couldn't quite see why the same good 'ole (Sir) Ian Holm - or a virtual replica such as Bob Gass, if Ian had no longer been available - wouldn't have well sufficed. (At the appropriate juncture, that is, i.e. halfway through the film (#1), though I accept the practical logistics of such would entail numerous potential difficulties.) Nevertheless Martin Freeman's Bilbo, serving as the perfect younger counterpart to the equally superbly cast and acted (Ian Holm's) Bilbo of (mainly) the Rings' trilogy, is so supremely wrought that all niggling criticisms vanish in the proverbial puff of magical dragon smoke.

In reproducing 'the letter' of the book. The Hobbit leaves much - in every way - to be desired, quite frankly; in reflecting and representing the essential 'spirit' of Tolkien's The Hobbit, as with PJ's LOTR film adaptation of J R R's classic tome Lord of the Rings, it is an exquisitely, even beautifully rendered offering to Tolkien aficionados. And containing the perfect mix of serious and comic elements, especially at its outset, befitting the much loved kid's fantasy story that it is. Moreover, fulfilling - if not exceeding - all hopes of  Rings' movie devotees, in their introductory, connecting, storytelling roles at the film's beginning, both Ian Holm's Bilbo Senior and Elijah Wood's Frodo faithfully come to the party and ably meet longstanding viewer expectations. As Galadriel might be imagined intoning in the background: "Welcome back [to the Shire] Masters Frodo and Bilbo Baggins."


Other characterizations are worthy of note, such as these excellent performances (and casting decisions): Richard Armitage's Thorin Oakenshield - suitably and preeminently grave, intense, focused and clearly defined; and Sylvester McCoy's Radagast the Brown alongside his wonderful avian confidants, beloved hedgehogs, and rabbit (sled) crew. Though some understandably regard Radagast's portrayal as somewhat odd, even eccentric in the extreme - and who's disputing that? - I found it a delightful touch, marrying both the film's much noted and extensive use of both the Lord of the Rings' ****trilogy's voluminous appendices, and Tolkien's understated character development of the rather obscure backblocks wizard Radagast in that epic. (****Or rather sestet, seeing as Tolkien himself actually split each of the three parts in his LOTR series into two smaller books, though in fact had them published only as a trilogy.)

I also (especially) loved these guys' beards and fierce, dwarfish demeanour and attitude: Graham McTavish's Dwalin, John Callen's Oin and Peter Hambleton's Gloin. However the combination of ultra-modern (if dwarfish) hair-dos (even 'weir-dos'!), extremely humanish (in particular hairless) faces, and laid-back, cutesy-funny personae of other dwarfs, though intriguing, still seemed an at times incompatible, unbefitting, even unbecoming feature. And so these didn't impact me as powerfully as those preceding characters who displayed an arguably more 'native' dwarfish temperament, though perhaps the latter thus served as an effective foil to their serious cousins' personalities, and, like humans, dwarfs surely vary considerably from dwarf to dwarf. Mark Hadlow's Dori and Ken Stott's Balin seemed to (successfully) combine both elements - i.e. a real, physical dwarfishness with a certain light-hearted personality streak. Overall, an eclectic hodgepodge of physico-temperamental characterizations of which Tolkien might have approved, though 'have been proud' would probably be stretching things. That is, if J R R would or could ever have reconciled himself to a modern-day big screen adaptation of his beloved and ever-so-idiosyncratic Middle Earth, itself somewhat of a stretch admittedly, as Peter Jackson also once openly mused.

But hats and scarves and any other available paraphernalia off to the tale's major villains. Such as Barry Humphries' Goblin King, or the Great Goblin (Under the Mountain) - and as a minor (key) highlight, the little flying fox messenger goblin (the GK's personal assistant/'scribe'), apparently played, animatronically, by Kiran Shah, of Rings, *****Narnia and other blockbuster movie fame.
Also - and equally brilliant (in both sheer physicality and characterization): the Trollshaw Trio: Bert, Tom and William (played by Mark Hadlow (again) and William Kircher and Peter Hambleton (again) respectively), alongside some digital animation worthy of Andy Serkis cum cgi-creation Gollum. If ever the perfect embodiment of Tolkien's own characterization, in both spirit and letter, can be said to have been carried out to flawless perfection in any of the Jackson films, these three - Bert, Tom and William - personify it. And for sheer creepiness combined with conscious power and malice, Azog (Chief Goblin Above The Mountain) put in a stellar performance - surprisingly, the only significant character going ******unmentioned in Brian Sibley's just released Official Movie Guide. (*****#1: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where Yours Truly met him in person. ******But perhaps Sir Peter et al were determined, following months of mini-releases of film highlights over the worldwide web, to keep a few surprises up their cinematic sleeve.)

Unfortunately the initial snippets of Smaug the Dragon (the chief villain of the saga - in Bilbo's words from the book "the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities") were also a chief, a great disappointment to this ardent book fan (that is, if the oriental 'dragon streamers' were meant to be a representation of Smaug, seemingly highly unlikely though the two to three (lone) images in quick succession seem to leave no alternative conclusion)...redeemed - hugely, however - by the final, fleeting glimpses of the same emerging from his treasure hordes in Mount Erebor as the film ends...'unfinished' and awaiting instalments two and three. And although (Sir) Ian McKellen's performance as Gandalf  in possibly the second (alongside Thorin) major role - at least in this first film - is more than adequate, even a classy act, it seems somewhat below his - admittedly hard to emulate - LOTR performances. Similarly with all three of the minimally featured senior 'old-timers' from LOTR - i.e. Hugo Weaving's Elrond, Cate Blanchett's the Lady Galadriel and (Sir) Christopher Lee's Saruman. Though again, all more than adequate performances, Saruman, like Gandalf, appeared overly tired, weary, but perhaps they're simply getting on in years, and looking every bit of it as well. Gollum also didn't quite do it for me - perhaps from seeing so many LOTR backgrounders - yet when I recollect seeing him again on screen last night, there's absolutely nothing to fault about his performance; if anything, he seemed a mirror image of the Gollum we've come to love so dearly in The Two Towers and Return of the King.
Maybe the cgi treatment - certainly not Andy Serkis' performance much less voice - didn't seem to have anything novel (even if technically it did). But enough of my musings.

As with Lord of the Rings, it would appear from initial soundings in the international film critic community that, for whatever reason: be it all the numerous controversies swirling seemingly endlessly around the creation of this new epic trilogy, and its director; be it a hangover of resentment from how the second  LOTR film, The Two Towers, so closely correlating chronologically and
ostensibly substantively with the Twin Towers tragedy of 9/11, was thus seen as apparently, implicitly lending its endorsement to the worldwide War on Terror that ensued; be it simple envy of Peter Jackson, Weta et al's rollercoaster success ride in recent years; be it simple fatigue with the apparent plethora of fantasy films in recent times; be it a super-abundance this year of other excellent film offerings; be it the sense of inevitability that the other films in the trilogy, or at least the last, will see PJ et al - as they assuredly did with Lord of the Rings, when the excellent first part of the trilogy was conspicuously and strangely ignored - scoop up a dragon horde's worth of awards that come late but not never; or be it an actual, genuine dislike of the substance and (adapted) storyline of this first hobbit film: Hobbit #1 is destined to be overlooked, even positively ignored when the gilded largesse of movie-making internationale is soon enough distributed. That will be a pity - if not the type (of pity) shown by Bilbo towards Gollum when given the chance to finish him off for good. For this film and its splendid, superbly cast crew will not have been judged upon their actual merits but upon apparently arbitrary and extraneous standards and criteria, whether these be:
political prejudice and/or personal pique; inevitable and understandable fantasy fatigue; a veritable bread-basket of alternative film offerings; a sense of resentful or fatalistic inevitability about PJ et al's soon enough rebounding and metaphorically slaying all their numerous film rivals; or sincere dislike or disdain. And let's be brutally honest: except for the third and very last of these, that's well beyond the remit of the Oscars and Academy Awards.

And I reserve the last word on the film to Yours Truly - i.e. to me, myself and I. If The Hobbit #1 was really so very bad, the fact that my personal appreciation only blossomed within a week, at a time when a number of negative reviews were rapidly gaining oxygen and traction, and when I then viewed it again without any special (3D or HFR) technical aides and effects whatsoever, surely provides an apt, if admittedly anecdotal, rebuff to such assessments. If I do say so myself.

Yes, Isn't Everyone An Instant Genius After the Fact

Tragedies still happen. Mistakes occasionally do occur. People aren't always perfect. Stuff goes down.
So what's new? Welcome to the human race. No, life isn't fair, even if way back yonder it was apparently created to be (so). It's long since ceased to be (thus) - "with knobs on", as some like to say.

Yet every action carries its own consequence/s, each cause has its effect/s. Sure, some small - and oh so gradual - but inevitable nonetheless: someday - somewhere - somehow... . But oh, how brilliant is hindsight. We're all - ever, always - experts 'after the fact', when all is done and dusted, when the proverbial dust has settled, when everything's over, rover...especially when(ever) we're home and hosed. Oh yes, we're top of the class.

Or so we like to think. But is it really so? Are we actually so perfect, so flawless ourselves. No, really?

So for all those frantically scrambling onto the frenzied media-generated bandwagon and baying for blood in the aftermath, the fallout of a U.K nurse's tragic suicide: look, it was really 'just a prank', which went badly wrong...yet there, but for the grace of God, go you and I...no, really.

But no, I'm sorry; my earnest, heartfelt apologies - and forgiveness requested: you'd never do that, would you... . Well, if that's your verdict, well-considered or otherwise, then so be it - only don't expect myself or anyone else to beat down a path to your door, extending mercy and forgiveness whenever you foul up.
Hasn't One spoken thus?: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." And: "Those who are well have no need of a Physician, but (only) those who are sick." Yes, you can hold on for dear life to all your accumulated, lifelong-purchased perfection and self-righteousness, but - ultimately - you can't expect to have it both ways, as the man who was (effectively) my step-dad for much of my childhood, at least teenage years liked to say: "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Though I've little doubt you'll try hard enough.

Yes, everyone's an expert after the fact. But really, who'd've guessed the ultimate outcome from recent well-reported events over the telephone cables between Australia and Great Britain? Oh, you did? Well then, congratulations - and celebrations - as the old song goes. Sorry, you actually didn't? Then please refrain from carrying on as if you did. And acting as two innocent jokesters' judge, jury and executioners.

But if you persist, did you realize there's a name for your kind? Well there is. If not the long-foretold Antichrist, then let's just say you're one of his dutiful minions, one of many antichrists. No, I'm really not kidding, if you're pardon the irony. You've just seen fit to usurp the prerogatives of The Only Just Judge, and has He not said, through His messenger James, the Lord's own (earthly) brother, in words admitting of no possible misunderstanding whatsoever, no ifs, buts or even (the slightest) maybes?:
"Judgment is [i.e. is now and will be later on as well] without mercy to the one [i.e. all those] who has[have]
shown no mercy." So watch out - you might well be next!

Replaying That Worn Out Record Over and Over and Over Again: Well, We've [All] Been There, and Now We're Back Again - already

*The script has been oh so predictable, really quite corny.

*The villain of the piece: one overtly and overly successful and widely popular 'leader of men', alongside his latest pet project.

*The crime: being - way - too successful and popular for his own good, and failing to bear fools gladly.

*The heroes & heroines: a ragtag assortment of envious and spiteful, ne'er-do-well also-rans, seeking for publicity and fame off the back of their arch foe, and ever eager to knock yet another presumptuous tall poppy off his high perch before it all starts to go to his head.

*The chief protagonists: one dark-complexioned, cagey conspirator from foreign fields, with his three local accomplices: one sharp and smooth-tongued and seemingly sage, the other two good-hearted though naive, one outrageously fortunate, the other hailing from close to home.

*The plot: A variety of concocted, trumped-up charges, posited fast and furiously by a cabal of apparently unassociated, unrelated individuals and groups, in order to knock said villain from his lofty and heady heights, to 'bring him down to earth' and attempt to show him just one more mere mortal among a world of such beings. Attempting, in the process, to destroy his reputation and credibility, alongside those of his many and similarly esteemed colleagues, and thus bring their major lifework into disrepute and dishonour.

**Success of the plot? Eventually a total flop - a failure on a grand scale - as the plot unravels thick and fast even as the various protagonists scramble furiously every which way seeking to turn any remaining loose ends to their advantage, while also stitching up new and ever more intriguing conspiratorial subplots and subtexts into the overall narrative of their endgame grand design.

**Ultimate moral of the story? As either Aesop or the Good Lord might have put it, the one who rolls a stone will have it roll back upon her own person, those who dig a pit will eventually fall into it themselves.

**Rating? "PG"(Parental Guidance Recommended) In order to explain the inherent subtleties and innate nuances of the plot to uninitiated observers, onlookers and newcomers, in case they too are, all too easily and cleverly, taken in by each and every unexpected twist and turn the story takes as it progresses.

But Let's Beware of Making Israel Into World Villain #1 & International Pariah To Boot

Though the following once roughly drafted, now somewhat spruced up 'letter to the editor' was within days overtaken by a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, these 'troubled thoughts of the night' give proper balance to and provide some degree of context (in my view) to this lay-person's reading of the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

As per usual, unequivocally the full weight of accepted international moral opinion and consensus comes down upon and falls heavily against the Israelis - as represented by their Government's actions of late.

But who's at real or at least most fault here? Arguably not the Israelis, merely exercising the long-established and universally all too well-understood right - of sovereign nations and/or peoples - to self-defence; by whatever means are at their disposal. Suffering daily, continual and intense bombardment from an enemy, apparently bent upon their - utter - destruction, or at the very least their abject terrorizing, they simply respond with surgically precise air strikes - sadly, and yes all too predictably, killing many innocent civilians including small kids in the process; (among families, according to Israel's Government, however, deliberately 'planted' next to missile silos and the like, to subsequently elicit popular sympathy for the Gazans' side of the conflict.) Whereas since the Israelis manage, through clever(er) technology and/or simply better preparedness, to evade such civilian death - losing very few citizens to Hamas rocket fire - they are automatically deemed the moral transgressor in the conflict. Since the Gazan Palestinians are thus clearly understood to be the natural underdog, 'we' instantly come to their defence and support, much as few people would tend to rally in support of Goliath when David is being overshadowed and threatened darkly with death. That's human nature, clearly understood and very understandable.

Granted - and it's a big concession - Israel certainly did kick-start this conflict anew, in one major, important sense, by choosing to - at this time - 'take out' in exactly such a clinically well-planned, organized and executed assassination, a leading member of Hamas. For who knows what underlying reason? Perhaps as a major distraction, with knowledge of attention all too undesired to soon come upon them again - whether well-deserved or otherwise - for the death in 2004 of Yasser Arafat, a beloved leader of the Palestinians. Someone who, love him or hate him, exuded a natural charisma and leadership on the world stage unequalled by any other popular Middle East leader since Abdul Nasser; excepting Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein, though these two were hated, loathed and detested in significantly greater proportion. Or maybe, as has been said, simply as an age-old device in drumming up support ahead of a rapidly approaching election.

So here we have it: the widely acknowledged militarily stronger nation in the conflict, Israel, supposedly - admittedly its vehement critics would argue only ostensibly - goes out of its way to avoid causing civilian casualties, yet actually 'achieves' exactly the opposite outcome among Gazan civilians (through arguably no fault of its own). Whereas that selfsame country, Israel, daily and hourly suffering intense aerial bombardment throughout its territory, perpetrated by a party, yes arguably the guilty aggressor in the conflict, determined thus to 'take out' as many innocents as possible, fails miserably in its aim but certainly not for want of trying or intention. And so we come to judge one party - i.e. the Israelites - as ipso facto the aggressor in the conflict, due to the evident results of its actions.Whereas the other party in the conflict, the Hamas militants in Gaza, despite motive-wise, apparently having no greater desire than to kill as many innocent Israelis as possible -none of their missiles evidently being aimed at obvious military targets - are rather impotent as it turns out, and so are to be automatically adjudged the innocent party. I'm sorry, something's not quite right here. If I indeed am wrong, then pray tell me in what appreciable way?

Indeed, Israel's Government amazingly made no upping of its long-threatened escalation of said conflict (by sending ground troops into Gaza) even while yet another bus full of completely innocent and totally defenceless Israeli civilians were bombed to smithereens - without either a murmur or a whisper from the international community, much less its supposed 'guardians' the United Nations. Which reminds me of a number of old newspaper clippings I've been stumbling upon recently, which alarmed and concerned me at the time in view of the international media approach to Israel. What were these? Simply two occasions over the past decade-and-a-couple years when Israel, in order to secure the release from captivity of one (or at most a few) of its soldiers in Palestinian (I believe Gazan) captivity, willingly and rather controversially -  among its citizenry - to put it mildly, agreed to simultaneously release around 500 Palestinians prisoners. So who - really - cares more about its own civilian (or for that matter military) population?

Alas, Yasser Arafat's Legacy May Soon And Sadly Speak...

Methinks the current exhumation of Yasser Arafat, longstanding leader of the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization - and moreover undisputed 'spiritual leader' to the great majority of Palestinians -long rumoured to vindicate claims that he was poisoned to death those 8-some years ago now, may well prove those [claims] well-founded. And methinks this has indeed been the underlying and even 'justifiable' explanation for the long-simmering and again recently boiled over anger, yea fury, of so many Palestinians in Gaza. For surely this [only just undertaken] exhumation of his remains, in the expectation that such may well reveal signs of the untoward manner and cause of his premature departure from this life, has been only too well-reported in Gaza of late, and long before the longstanding tensions there once again came so dramatically to the surface in recent weeks. However controversial the life of this longserving champion of his people - an unwavering advocate of a Palestinian homeland for the long-dispossessed Palestinian people (although arguably also of the expulsion of Israelis from Palestine 'into the [Mediterranean] sea' and thus their utter extermination) - the actual cause of his death, long the subject of suspicion, if only now long after the fact close to being (theoretically) 'conclusively' established, should give ample pause to all parties involved and yes, maybe even soul-searching, among Israelis and Americans especially, in days and weeks and months to come. One can only ever live in hope. Irrespective of any 'verdict' or declaration upon the matter, however, one suspects that Arafat undoubtedly will be seen anew as a martyr. No, and to his enduring and considerable credit, he certainly didn't self-immolate or die in a suicide bombing, taking both his own life as well as that of countless innocents, but martyr for the cause he may well come to be regarded as. All the more so in that, whatever and moreover whoever the cause of his early demise, he thus appears to have been 'taken out of the way' in an extraordinary and surreptitious manner all too eerily reminiscent of Russia's current leader.

Admittedly I've personally suspected that Mr Arafat was not only deliberately 'disposed of', but done so for one reason more than any other: the well-founded and arguably justifiable conviction on the part of Israeli intelligence and security especially - and perhaps even their superiors going all the way up into the inner echelons of Israeli Government - that were he to have not been thus summarily despatched the world may well have seen its end in an atomic holocaust centered around Jerusalem in 2006: a scenario well within conceivable feasibility according to the revelations in Michael Drosnin's groundbreaking and critically important The Bible Code (unfortunately misrepresented by some superficial observers). Conspiracy theories some may assume, but I imagine such is a lot closer to the real crux of the matter than many imagine. And paradoxically, in so doing I also suspect that such covert assassins have - however inadvertently and inconceivably (in their own eyes) - actually thus moved Planet Earth a heckuva lot closer to such a long-feared scenario than they realize: a couple minutes if not seconds away from the long-fabled Doomsday Clock's hands striking midnight. Indeed by thus galvanizing the outraged sympathies and passions of the Palestinian people for their beloved long-time standard-bearer, thus transformed into an unrivalled and inimitable martyr for their cause par excellence, and by virtue of the appalling manner of his death perhaps even 'being able' consequently to enlist the similarly outraged sympathies of a world populace, or at least the leadership thereof, equally appalled by the thus silencing and disposal of a man generally considered not only a paragon of supreme moderation and even pragmatism in Palestinian-Israeli affairs, I - extremely regretfully - believe "the children of Ismael will [thus] prepare to arouse all the nations of the world to come against Jerusalem"*, and thus fulfil longstanding biblical prophecies that are rapidly looking increasingly liable of fulfilment...(From 'Chapter Notes', pages 170-172, The Bible Code.) But I certainly hope such is not the case, and like Michael Drosnin and Eliyahu Rips, the now famous Israeli mathematician intimately associated with the decoding of said 'Bible Code', and indeed a whole host of other commentators upon and (at times suitably hesitant and tentative) interpreters of various of the other major end-time, apocalyptic prophecies of a time many believe to be all too resonant with our own, believe - as has indeed ever been the case throughout the 'biblical  (i.e. Older and Newer Testament) dispensation' - that humanity, by its own choices - has an essential freedom to choose just how those, supposedly  predetermined' events, actually pan out. I.e. God's foreknowledge does not indicate His foreordaining. 

And yet, realist that I cannot help but ultimately be, I suspect that Mr Arafat, "being dead, yet speaketh", and not in the faith-building way that his martyred biblical forbear - the first human being created, and all too soon murdered by his own brother - has surely done over earth's many millennia. No, I suspect rather that the manner - and presumed cause - of his demise will bear 'fruit' indeed, if long after the fact, but in a way far from conducive to that long-eluding peace in the Middle East that the region's numerous and diverse inhabitants and indeed humanity itself, have long wistfully yearned for and equally consistently been cheated of. As Grima Wormtongue of Lord of the Rings might have put it, an ill omen bearing evil tidings indeed.

Still It's Somewhat Sad To See...

...pictures of jubilant masses rejoicing in misplaced triumphalism in the streets of Gaza, celebrating and  skiting as if they've just achieved, not a painstakingly arrived at ceasefire, in the very nick of time, but rather a glorious victory upon the field of battle. And, to add sad and inglorious insult to injury, pronouncing this 'triumph' as if it were one more notch in a tally of victories against the much loathed and feared 'Zionists' of Israel. For such is certainly the tenor and substance of the understandably emotive but surely inflammatory language reported by foreign correspondents in Gaza. That is, if we are to trust the evidence of our eyes, admittedly often a dangerous thing; but the telecast celebratory marches and associated 'spontaneous' street demonstrations of solidarity with the militant, yea terrorist Hamas movement presently governing Gaza, would tend to lend 'cred' to such an interpretation. Leaving one to wonder whether this present 'blip in [Israeli-Gazan] proceedings' is really serious and liable to extend beyond the token customary period.

And certainly Israel's Government, on the other hand, by threatening speedy and severe retaliatory measures in the immediate aftermath of the recent conflict, may well bring short-term comfort to its citizenry, but how such helps accomplish a climate of goodwill and hope in the extremely fraught situation is incomprehensible to the nth degree. For surely in such a highly charged atmosphere every pebble thrown into the maelstrom of muddy waters known as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not altogether dissimilar from yanking the lid off of Pandora's Box. Sure, the potentially dire consequences are anything but unexpected, yet they are certainly considerable, and where they might ultimately lead 'God only knows'...

*Necessary Disclaimer: In saying all the foregoing I'm well aware how utterly and thoroughly insensitive such comments no doubt initially and superficially might have appeared, and so I hasten to add that they were in no sense to be taken as casting any sort of unfair and untoward reflections upon those who've lately been suffering extreme grief and anguish from the killing, maiming and otherwise mutilating of their kids, parents and other relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours, let alone the destruction of their homes and environs. Mind you, surely that 'goes', i.e. applies equally to all those likewise innocent Israelis suffering similar - if on a much lesser scale - trauma, and let's not forget the ongoing and irrevocable psycho-emotional trauma induced by all of the same, as well as that inevitably caused by the ongoing regular bombardment of one's overall vicinity, though apparently without (military) 'success', which so often either goes unnoticed or not fully appreciated by the casualty 'number crunchers' in their penchant for 'cold hard facts and stats'.

Let All Good Men (& Women) Rejoice, With Heart and Soul and Voice - AND YET...

Whenever 'peace' is achieved, all folk of goodwill cannot but be glad, even thankful...and yet for every silver lining there is inevitably a darker cloud beneath. However, 'today' - the day of the ceasefire brokered between Israel and the Gazans - is not the day to dwell upon that. To paraphrase what the ranger Aragorn - the Dunedain of the North born to Gondorian kingship in the 3rd-4th age of Middle Earth - declared: "there may [indeed] come a day [and no doubt all too soon] when the strength of [Israeli and Gazan] men fail, but this is not that day." A day when the (most disputed part of the) Middle East once more goes up in flaming smoke or down in a flaming heap, but, thank God, "this day is not that day". No, "let us rejoice and be glad": for divine mercies, however 'small' and all-too-temporary. "Blessed [indeed] are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

A Politician of Rare Quality Has Fallen: George McGovern - Rest in Peace Until the Resurrection Day

A great man has died. Though largely unrecognized in his day for his immense moral calibre and yea, even spiritual stature - except for a supposed gaffe/faux pas deemed then and now by the superficial media elite as fatal to his political chances (i.e. his declaring himself entirely, completely, absolutely, "1000%" behind his first vice-presidential running mate of 1972, then Missouri Senator Thomas (Tom) Eagleton, later replaced with/by Peace Corps' Director Sargent Shriver, because of Eagleton's 'mental illness' - depression and having undergone electro-shock therapy) - the man towers head and shoulders above and beyond such petty and all-too-predictable evaluations/assessments/historical judgments.

George McGovern, one-time and long-serving Senator for South Dakota - until the Reagan Republican landslide of 1980 - and Democratic Presidential Nominee against Richard Nixon in 1972, was probably the first politician, alongside perhaps Aotearoa-New Zealand's own idealistic and idealism-inspiring short-lived Prime Minister Norman Kirk (of the same era), to inspire Yours Truly. A man of simple convictions, of heartfelt integrity, moreover of decency and civility - admittedly in an era notably and largely lacking the rudeness and incivility and extremely polarized political discourse of today's American (and Western) politics, Mr McGovern served his state - and nation - well. Irrespective of whether he achieved the ultimate political office. Those attaining such positions aren't always the most deserving let alone effectively redeeming of such immense privileges anyhow - so conspicuously the case in this instance.

Not for him the extremely cynical and again, oh-so-typical epithet applied to all politicians by Newstalk ZB's 'Drivetime Show' host Larry Williams the other day, who in commentating upon President Obama's supposedly superior performance in the recent second U.S. presidential debate, remarked that "[of course] President Obama lied...but they all lie, politics is [all] about the art of bending the truth". Whether such is or more specifically was true of Obama in said debate is itself a debatable point no doubt, and one I have no intention much less desire here of traversing...indeed like most folks I'm really probably not in a position to know - and ditto vis-a-vis Obama's opponent Mitt Romney - but I will say this: though such a characterization would certainly seem 'equally' applicable to Mr McGovern's renowned, yea infamous, even notorious 1972 presidential adversary - the ill-fated, impeached 37th President of the United States - it's not remotely applicable to George McGovern. If he had any fault, much like Yours Truly, it was in being far too open and candid about his views on this, that and the other: to use the rather hackneyed phrase, he wore his heart upon his sleeve.

'When all is said and done' Mr McGovern - the last surviving major presidential contender (successful or otherwise) from the pre-Reagan era, barring President Jimmy Carter - was more than anything else a supremely decent human being. And surely there's not a better tribute one can be paid, is there?

Moral Courage In & From the Most Unlikely Place

At last, one nation, and a solidly Muslim and MiddleEastern one to boot, with the guts, the gumption to stand up on behalf of the hundreds, the thousands, of victims of Syria's butcher Assad; even if - initially anyhow - primarily and largely for 'enlightened self-interest'. In this case in defence of its homeland.Yes, our modern-day United Nations stands "Guilty as charged" with lots of blood quite literally on its hands, for failing to confront Assad for his daily butchery "of tens and hundreds" of innocent civilians. And note nothing of the all-too-typical political exaggeration by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to press home his point here; rather a careful, measured but all too accurate summation of the situation which is Bashir al-Assad's Syria. And likewise he cited the consistent Russian and Chinese vetoing of U.N. resolutions upon the matter, blocking any and every attempt at a resolution of the Syrian civil war.

Yes, just like Nero did those couple millennia ago, the world and its supposed 'leaders' stand or more aptly sit idly by and fiddle while Assad and his cohorts wreak bloody havoc upon their own citizenry, massacring tiny kids - infants and toddlers - without a twinge of guilt or remorse. Will the godly finally stand up - or are they all, permanently, 'missing in action'. As John Tamihere might have put it, we need a little less hui and a whole lot more do-ey.

Hey Folks, Let's Be Reasonable Now...

In view of the (largely Western) propensity to toss around, willy-nilly, such terms as fascist and nazi these days, it comes as no great surprise, admittedly. Nevertheless it must've seemed in extremely bad taste - obviously to her compatriots, whether politically supportive or otherwise, but especially to her personally - for Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to be mocked and derided by Greek protestors as a Nazi tyrant, during her recent visit to Greece; for her admittedly extremely controversial determination to impose an economic straightjacket upon all peoples of the European Union.But surely shouldn't some things simply remain 'forever' off-limits as unacceptable and offensive in any context? Especially since Germany is hardly ever gonna really, easily 'live down' what transpired so awfully and tragically those six-and-a-half to eight decades ago now; and from all accounts has gone to the nth degree to attempt to 'make right' what can obvoiusly never really be made right, only properly assimilated and learnt from in order to ensure it never happens again. Tragically, in all too many places and instances - if in a wholly different series of contexts - 'it has': Stalin's Reign of Terror, Mao-Tse-Tung's Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot's Killing Fields, Idi Amin's bloody barbarism, Rwanda's internecine bloodbath, Milosevic's genocide in Kosovo and the Balkans, Saddam Hussein's million-some Victims. (And though I carry absolutely no brief for the man, I won't here set George W - the former U.S. President - alongside these others, although the very idea of  'collateral damage' is an utterly repugnant one.)

Heightened tensions tend to give rise to such expressions of vitriol and intemperance, as can clearly be seen all around our world at present in all manner of conflicts and other situations, but that's hardly the point. Much as innocent Jews are once again being targeted throughout Europe and especially in France, and - on another level altogether, but still - as has occurred on our very street over recent days, where five individual and large swastikas have been bedaubed upon lampposts and sidewalks. A symbol ever evoking the worst sentiments in humanity and eliciting the fiercest gut level reaction. But such, as they say, is the price of freedom.    

A Wonderful Illustration Of That Very Point

So how 'chuffed', simply amazed and astonished and astounded I was, when, a couple of Saturdays ago, incidentally during a sojourn of one of those aforementioned relatives, to - quite literally - 'stumble upon' someone doing the right thing by the country she had now chosen, presumably, to call her new home. As 'author' of an unpaid opinion piece 15 or so years earlier, entitled 'Not Just in the Backblocks', in which I - rather painstakingly - chronicled, both visually and prosewise, the then state of doggydoodom in my beloved Dunedin, call me somewhat biased if you will, but nevertheless... . This youngish Asian gal, no doubt quite unused to a smile much less a kind word from her new, largely European - in these often frigid, southern climes - fellow residents, appeared 'out of the ether' as I was rounding a final bend in the bush of one of Dunedin's innumerable walking tracks, patiently bending down beside a river and scooping up the defecated dregs of her dog's digestive system; quite impervious to my presence until I chanced upon her.

So she was doing what she did "with fear (of) and favour toward none" - as well befits a visitor to this blogsite. And indeed thus undoubtedly proving herself a better citizen and/or resident than the - great - majority (at least until recent times) of her fellow Dunedinites. And a few minutes, at most, later, as I passed out of the reserve, followed a short distance back, by herself and her doggy, I noticed, and pointed out in her hearing, a large sign - the first of such I'd ever encountered - informing all such pet owners of the $300 fine they would be liable for if they failed in their pooper-scooper duties. Which she claimed, in an ever-so-genuine fashion, to never have even noticed, just as she'd reacted similarly to my surprise at her act of disinterested benevolence a few minutes earlier. Well done milady!

Yes, When One's In Rome - You Know The Rest

One oughta - at least attempt to - 'do as the [locals] do'...rather than throwing one's weight (be that physical or 'just' psychical) around. Such naturally has innumerable practical, everyday, 'real life' applications - but we won't here get into the oft-contentious matter of 'entertaining' one's in-laws - or more often outlaws. But on more substantial, weighty matters: how come no-one among our Western intelligentsia ever bothers to inform either the Middle Eastern multitudes, much less immigrants to our shores from those parts, that freedom of speech and expression is such a precious 'commodity' that we've been periodically prepared to die for that great, much-revered value - however abhorrent the individual expression of that principle may well happen to be. End of story.   

And as for the renewed death threats towards Salman Rushdie...

As night relentlessly follows day and day invariably succeeds night, so the voices of oppression, repression and tyranny lost no time in calling anew for renowned British-based author Salman Rushdie's murder...for merely having the temerity to be seen and heard, in the immediate aftermath of the recent Mid-Easternwide anti-free speech protests over the American 'anti-Mohammed' YouTube clip creator, voicing his own considered reflections, in spite of his own unenviable situation, in favour of freedom of speech. Having personally witnessed this recent, shortish interview, I actually wondered whether or rather how soon such folk would once more be clamouring for his blood, and indeed, I can hardly claim to have been 'disappointed' in terms of that expectation. But can we say or claim that Western - in this case British - 'justice' is itself blameless, seeing as, for instance, during the last worldwide bout of stridently militant Islamist sentiment following the publication of the Mohammed-mocking Danish cartoons in early 2005, those British Islamist (no, I won't dignify them with the adjective 'Muslim') protesters openly baying for death to all such evil-doers were not subsequently, forthwith prosecuted for so doing. And yet hasn't threatening others with death - not 'jokingly', but in deadly, earnest seriousness - ever been a prisonable offence? (In the West, I mean, and especially in the once Great Britain, where people died in the early-1940s for life and liberty. Rallying to Sir Winston Churchill's cries to "fight 'em on the beaches, upon the bunkers and in the backblocks". (Or something like that.))

And While We're Addressing Such Matters...

...It's Simply Outrageous:

If it was a Christian minister or pastor involved in offering a bounty upon the life of one of his 'foes', we'd - quite literally - hear no end of the matter...and moreover we'd hear calls - left, right and centre - by fellow ministers as well as Christian laity, worldwide - for his censure; condemning him in no uncertain terms; to use the pertinent biblical metaphor, there'd be no giving the trumpet an uncertain sound, no sirree. And in an earlier age, and no doubt still in certain 'Christian' quarters, he'd be defrocked and/or excommunicated (from the church/Christian communion) - at the very least. And that's not even broaching the fact that in many places the making of death threats is still a prisonable offence.

So why the palpable, tangible silence - from self-respecting, supposedly 'moderate' Muslims worldwide - towards this Pakistani Government Minister? No, not only has he - a week or two ago now - made this appalling, outrageous call - for the blood of this (admittedly) offensive, offending American YouTube clip 'author' - with apparently no repercussions, much less sacking-on-the-spot by his Pakistani Government superiors, but lo and behold he received the equivalent of a standing ovation from the surrounding hordes/'ignorant multitudes', and, far worse, apparently was wildly cheered on, even received vehement applause from the many Pakistani journalists present. Something simply doesn't mesh here. And yes, I myself here and now upon the spot confess quite openly to my own utter gutlessness in voicing these sentiments at the time. Guilty as charged for my own moral cowardice - so unlike that admirable Pakistani 'kid' Malala. Why so? Well, you figure out yourself. But let me conclude by stating in as unequivocal a fashion as I can that any religion or ideology which sustains its argument and/or supposed 'credentials' by dint of coercion is utterly and thoroughly bankrupt. It deserves everything it has coming to it: lock, stock and barrel as well. To quote a certain ex-politician: no ifs, buts or maybes.

Once To Every Man and Nation

"Once to every man and nation Comes the Moment to decide
 In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side;
 Some great cause, God's new Messiah, Offering each the bloom or blight,
 And the choice goes by forever 'Twixt that darkness and that light.

 Then to side with truth is noble When we share her wretched crust,
 Ere her cause bring fame and profit, And 'tis prosperous to be just;
 Then it is the brave man chooses, While the coward stands aside,
 Till the multitude make virtue Of the faith they had denied.

 By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
 Toiling up new Calvaries ever With the cross that turns not back;
 New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth;
 They must upward still and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet 'tis truth alone is strong,
Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own."

So wrote James Russell Lowell in his memorable 1845 hymn, bearing lyrics which are all but inspired.
And a fitting tribute, surely, to the 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, whose near-assassination today for having and showing immense, tremendous moral courage in the face of a bunch of brutal, religious thugs speaks for itself. Malala, may the Eternal enfold you in His arms of love and compassion, now and forevermore.  

And Last But By No Means Least, Let's Hear It For The Oft-Impugned Murray McCully

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully - and his Green Party counterpart Kennedy Graham, of Sir Douglas' persuasion - are right on the ball in regard to what should be the international pariah nation of - no, not Israel, as is usually the case, but - Syria, a brutal regime 'run by a thug', as someone so well expressed it yesterday on one of TV3's various Sunday morning current affairs shows. But as they've both said, when but when is someone gonna do something about it? No, really? It's about time.

And While I'm About It, Let's Put In A Word For Some Other NZ Politicians

Chiefly, let's say a word for Justice Minister Judith ("Crusher") Collins, and, oddly enough - in juxtaposition with her - "The Right Honourable" (as he is still reverentially deferred to around the Beehive's unhallowed halls - yes, admittedly out of a sense of proper parliamentary etiquette) Winston Peters himself...for each turning in extremely creditable performances in recent parliamentary sittings. Winston - for finally, but as they say, 'better late than never', learning the art of biting his tongue (as I've unfortunately done to my gums four times in two weeks, three times over just the last two days) vis-a-vis our Parliament's much-esteemed Speaker Lockwood Smith - and that despite his barely-concealed displeasure and disgruntlement. Ms Collins - for showing the utmost aplomb and quietly dignified, gracious mien and composure in response to especially the questioning of West Coast Green M.P. Kevin Hague, an especially productive and 'in earnest' member of that party, alongside Kennedy Graham in particular. She not only answered the specific questions asked, she did so fully, frankly and fairly, and with the utmost reasonableness and goodwill. And, as ever, an 'in deadly earnest' demeanour totally befitting the seriousness of the matters being raised.   

Third Time Lucky - Yet Another Positive

Hard to believe I was hearing the selfsame "(Sir Peter) Jackson-hater", C.T.U. President Helen Kelly, on Mary Wilson's National Radio Evening Edition this Monday the 1st of October, telling Mary that, yes, there was nothing wrong, indeed it was a good thing in fact that our P.M. was currently 'doing the rounds' in the corridors of Hollywood promoting the New Zealand Film Industry. Certainly in said interview Ms Kelly maintained her stance on what had gone down around the special deal made with Warner Brothers over the Hobbit films saga back in 2010, and naturally, and reasonably, echoed generally aired media concerns over John Key's doing so now against the obvious immediate backdrop of the Kim Dotcom fiasco and links to those selfsame Hollywood studios. And I certainly cannot fault Ms Kelly's citing the Government's 'picking winners' yet simultaneously leaving Kiwi Rail out to dry, though a departing worker in town I chatted to yesterday informed me that local Dunedin South M.P. Clare Curran - Yours Truly stood against as an independent (believe it or not) candidate in 2008 - had grossly inflated the number of layoffs from the two he maintained had occurred...(Still, my money's with Ms Curran on that one, but perhaps I misheard him.)

Hey, Maybe They're Even Doing Something Else Right!

Wonder of wonders, will they never cease? Yes, once more the crime stats are dropping significantly throughout the land. And again, I've no doubt that fact bears no relation whatsoever to the fact that our 'new' government has been making short shrift of lawlessness wherever it may be found... Still, once again, it can't but make you wonder - just a little anyhow. (And notice, I didn't even mention Crusher Collins.) Perhaps Michael Cullen was correct when he cited law and order as one of the basic factors in the 2008 change of government. Personally, I'd always thought so myself. Like many others I'm sure.

At Least They're Doing Something Right

Funny thing, a 'new' government (4 years on, it's stretching the term a little, but nevertheless) and suddenly the issue of bowel (and perhaps also prostrate) cancer is 'on the agenda': as in prospective screening for this worrisome scourge afflicting increasing numbers of New Zealanders. And yet the previous crowd were zealous about cervical cancer, admittedly occurring with the backdrop of the well-publicized Hawkes Bay scandal. No, I'm sure it had little to do with the fact that the latter was clearly a female disease, and the former a male one - it couldn't possibly be, could it... But it sure makes ya wonder, eh... Anyhow, I for one will give the present Government and its Minister, Tony Ryall, due kudos - hey, it could one day be my life - or even yours...who knows?

Aotearoa's Very Own Cause Celebre & Folkhero Kim Dotcom #4

Yes, Kim Dotcom has become more than a bit of a New Zealand folkhero  - as another Newstalk ZK talkback host, Leighton Smith, has suggested, now veritably running NZ Government by default...

God's Own's Very Own Cause Celebre & Folkhero #3

Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson had an interesting speech during Parliament's urgent debate on the matter last week, in which he spoke admiringly dispassionately and moreover made the interesting point/observation that it was just as well that the P.M. and his deputy hadn't in fact been more in hands-on command of the issue - i.e. of NZ"s security service apparatus - for surely that would be, or would smack of, the hallmarks of a police state - something people understandably enough accused Rob Muldoon of when he wielded that privileged position of being head of the S.I.S. and occasionally divulged info which suggested he was having a little too much hands-on control of its day-to-day operations.

NZ's Own Cause Celebre & Folk Hero #2

Re Deputy P.M. Bill English: Though accused, understandably enough, of serving as P.M. Key's convenient fall guy for any governmental failing under Mr Key's  "Don't - God Forbid! - let any dirt stick to me" approach to his government's exceedingly successful PR operation, superbly copy-and-pasted from the Australian public relations consultants, Crosby and Textor, at least he straightaway confessed to his own involvement the other day...and likewise, though somewhat seriously sullied by the rental expenses saga a couple years back, was never one of those National MPs implicated in Nicky Hager's Hollow Men. Nevertheless such a matter - even amidst hundreds of others - should surely be rather towards 'the top of the agenda', one would think, when debriefing his leader upon what had transpired in his absence.

New Zealand's Very Own Cause Celebre & Folkhero Rolled Into One: Ruminations Upon Kim Dotcom and the Kim Dotcom Saga

Vis-a-vis P.M. John Key: I concur completely with Newstalk ZB Morning Show host Mike Hosking's assessment of Mr Key's apology: that it was "genuine and decent...the proper and right thing to do"; and in regard to TV1 Headline News that he'd given "a rare apology", that was undoubtedly and all too sadly true, and yet at least he's given even just one, unlike a well-known predecessor of his; and yes, I'm - obviously - not including any of Ms Clark's saying "I'm sorry" to the Samoans and Chinese etc: all fair enough indeed, but hardly requiring great personal humility much less contrition on her part. And looking back, I do believe there were a few, if not half a dozen or so, such 'matters' on her part which did indeed warrant such. 

It's Time For The World To Heed The Clear Warning Signs

The world indeed stands close to the precipice - closer than perhaps any time since the height - or perhaps depths is more apt - of the Cold War between The U.S.A. and the (former) U.S.S.R.. And yes, as unpopular and unsexy as it is today to say so, the Israelis, in particular its rather forcible, frank and formidable leader Benjamin Netanyahu, are right on the money vis-a-vis the imminent threat posed by the apocalyptic-like machinations and ambitions of Iran, with or without its present leader Ahmindinejab. And for anyone doubtful of such a quick perusal of Michael Drosnin's classic The Bible Code, let alone Daniel chapter 11: 40-45, make this abundantly clear. (And only a mention will here be made of that selfsame Older Testament prophet's citing the nations of Libya and Egypt in the very last days, countdown-to-Armageddon scenario. Netanyahu's speech today was reasoned, measured, yet deadly in earnest: let our 21st-Century, Israel-despising world take note. God will ever defend His own - though they fail to turn to Him till the very 11th hour; yet surely we're now closer to midnight - well past five to twelve on the Doomsday Clock - than we even were during that most infamous period of the Cold War.  

And the Js have it also

Good on both Labour's Jacinda Ardern and new Green M.P. Jan Logie for fronting up and putting their wallet where their many professions have been and seizing the ammunition by their incisors and living beneath the 'real' poverty line for, I'm assuming, a whole week; as 1.4 billion of our fellow earth inhabitants also apparently do on a regular, day-to-day basis.

TV Plaudit #4: The one-time "Honourable" John Tamihere's ThinkTank

This one-time would-be leader of the NZ Labour Party and our nation - more's the pity and our loss due to his coming completely unstuck c/o an extremely ill-advised Ian Wishart interview - has finally found his niche. Another ably compered discussion - panel in this instance - Mr Tamihere delivers his show with great style and panache, an ever-polite and exceedingly courteous demeanour and helpful, self-effacing approach. Moreover invariably eliciting intelligent and thoughtful contributions and tete-a-tete from his guests upon subjects of moment generally ignored (or simply never gotten around to) by the mainstream media And the icing upon the cake is surely the intro 'panel', perhaps suggesting John missed his real calling in life on either Get Smart or Mission Impossible. "Eat your heart out, Maxwell Smart" (and Agent 66, or was that 99?)

#3 Plaudit: TV3's (newish) Three60 Show

Much as the ODT's World Focus supplement has proved itself from inception, this newish Sunday morning international current affairs show has been a stunner. Good topics, with useful interviews, and ably compered by the formerly challenged and rather acerbic Guyon Espiner, but from his Q&A interviews - or was that The Nation? - having proven himself increasingly able and on-the-ball and incisive. A good move, folks, but typically probably unknown, unnoted and unrecognized: like most good TV shows.

And while we're on the subject of tv shows...

A thank you to the ever irrepressible Walrus of New Zealand TV himself, Mark Sainsbury, on a good innings and many worthwhile interviews/discussions/topics - amidst admittedly a fair volume of chaff.

An Example Worthy of Emulation: Real Food for Thought

Certainly food for thought - that is, those young gals, and NZ Oxfam Director, on tonight's CloseUp, personally experiencing what it's like to live/survive on a real poverty daily diet, of .70 cents a meal a day. Something it might benefit all of us to do/attempt - on a genuine, real basis - from time to time. Not to mention all the kiddies who still engage in the yearly 48-hour famine, raising funds through sponsors.

An Extra-Special SUPACALIFRAGILISTICEXPEALIDOSHUS to a half-dozen folk (& organisations): In Brevity of Necessity

To: *Prince William and Princess Kate - for especial decorum & self-control & fortitude in response to a blatant disregard of their personal privacy and boundaries by folk whose paparazzi character would and could only have been all too readily reminiscent of those selfsame ilk who pursued and hounded Princess Di to her own untimely death around fifteen years earlier.
    
      *That great and unparallelled document, the U.S. Constitution, which forever enshrines the sanctity of the Western value of freedom of speech and expression, for which priceless/precious value and valued principle people have given their lives throughout generations, especially in that one, unique, World War 11.

      *All those whose livelihoods (i.e. cartoonists, comedians etc - without whom this world would inevitably be immensely the poorer) depend upon and are inextricably associated with this cherished ability and liberty to lampoon one and all with fear of and favour toward none: long may their tribe continue!

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      *J.R.R. Tolkien for his unparalleled masterpieces The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, etc, and for his sheer determination and utter unwillingness to ever deviate from his implacable desire to have and see his works published as and when and in the style that most suited them and best satisfied him.

      *Peter Jackson for his remaining dignified and above the fray in view of the ongoing disrespectful references to his person (in public speeches) of C.T.U. President Helen Kelly, whose desire to make of Sir Peter an ideological cardboard cutout figure to suit her own political propensities may well make for good theatre - worthy of a cameo appearance in one of Peter Jackson's films no doubt - but does nothing to enhance her credibilitiy as a decent New Zealander, especially in view of the exemplary praise Sir Peter was given during the film row by some of the acting guild leaders themselves - among many others - (for his excellent treatment of his workers on his film sets) but moreover for his recent ongoing efforts, alongside wife Fran (and others) in securing the successful release from death row in the U.S, of the three fellows now known simply as 'The Memphis Three'.

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And last but by no means least to a personal friend and father figure and mentor, Richard Welch, whose birth-anniversary (as he himself ever referred to it) this (i.e. September the 24th) ever was...who died prematurely - but of natural causes and/or lifestyle failings - 18 years ago, I believe, (plus 2 months), while Yours Truly sojourned in 'the land of the free', shortly thereafter penning an ode to his cherished memory at a city park in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, state of my Mum's - also his one-time close friend - upbringing. (A friend in his pro-MMP - unlike my Dad's contrary anti-MMP - crusading to a man, Ian Upton, who visitied me entirely out of the blue a couple weeks ago from a little island off the coast of Auckland.) May he rest in peace, and join in the resurrection of the just on that great day so soon upon us.

Congratula-shuns - and celebrat-shuns

To the beloved Bilbo and Frodo Baggins(es) on their, respective, eleventy-first (111th) and thirty-third (33rd) birth-anniversaries...'hobbitses', to quote the equally beloved, (as irascible as Bilbo) Goolum (Smeagol), ever dear to my own heart...on this, my 44th blog-posting (at least on my own blogsite bulletin board) of the 22nd of September, 2012 - perhaps itself the 'beginning of the end' year of regular earth reckoning - from all (reasonable-sounding) accounts...

May the Good Lord Bless all the true shepherds in the land

As 'the Good Book' itself enjoins accolades upon all true shepherds/pastors of the[ir] flocks, and due opprobrium for all those false to their trust, may this lowly pleb himself  'celebrate' all those real shepherds in Aotearoa who have cared for their tiny lambs at this revisitation of mid-winter chill upon our nation, and likewise invite exposure and shame for all those others who simply couldn't give a damn...
           as said Book of Books puts it: "A righteous man regards the life of his animal,
But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

Another '9/11' reflection/tribute

To a special brother whose New Zealand birthdate is literally 9/11, i.e. the 9th of November, and to a special lady ('love - from afar - of my life') who happened to have the NZ-equivalent birthdate of  9/11: i.e. the 11th of September...this now infamous day/date will ever be associated, as well as with my ineffaceable memory of that fateful day, which, much like the Moon Landing and JFK's assassination for a previous generation, and Lady Diana's death (for my own) just 4 short years (& 11 days) before, will never be forgotten...

My other 9/11 reflection-tribute

To the underated, (ultimately) politically unsuccessful one-time (9/11) New York City Mayor Rudy Guilliani:

for presiding over the brilliant, ever-so-politically-incorrect, '3 strikes and you're out' New York Citywide crackdown on crime through highlighting and targetting 'small stuff' crime, and thus dealing decisively with the city's longtime scourge of dastardly crime 'stats' or more aptly realities: Thank you - especially from all those who are alive today because you simply refused to adopt a feel-good, namby-pamby approach.

9/11 Revisited 11 Years On (on the 'American' 9/11)

A double-sided brickbat/bouquet is due, the former to governments (plural), the latter to a 'single' individual:

The first to Western Governments generally, who, in their exceedingly indecent haste (in the decade) post 9/11 to be seen to be doing something to make the(ir corner of the) world safer for all their citizenry, overreached themselves to the utmost extent, passing a raft and succession of - ostensibly anti-terrorist, effectively liberty-squashing and destroying laws whose full repercussions will not ultimately be understood in their nefarious implications and repercussions until George W's selfsame nation one day soon(er than we all realize) enacts, quickly followed by other nations around the globe, a national Sunday law, which edict will rapidly precipitate our world into that long-foretold Time of Jacob's Trouble which will itself hurtle our planet and its inhabitants into the culminating events leading up into the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

A Belated "Good-bye" to 'the man in the moon'

You lived and died with a quiet, modest, self-effacing nobility, Mr Neil Armstrong, ever eschewing the publicity-hungry, rapacious media. Apparently even intending to have said: "One small step for a man."
And memorably, when asked by an interviewer, during a rare interview given just months before his death, his view of the moon conspiracy theory, responded, again, in a paraphrase 'to the best of my recollection':
"What chance would there (have) be(en) of keeping 800,000 NASA scientists silent for over 4 decades?"

Good On Ya, John

And to the redoubtable John Banks a word of commendation is due...for saying, in yesterday's afternoon's encomium for our victorious, returning paralympians (I paraphrase Mr Banks, for fear of misquoting him):
                           "what an inspiration they've been to other disabled NZers, who likewise need to know that they too can achieve [whatever goals they set themselves] with the support of the[ir] community." And moreover all credit to you, John, for thus officially floating a new ACT NZ principle; and a revolutionary one at that!

*Numero Uno in der Weldt*

Excuse my poor Spanish/German, folks - but "YIPPEE": we're now #1 in the world: our kiwi paralympians, that is...as in the highest/greatest recipients in the world per capita for medals at the London Games!

Hurrah - bless you - "wunderbar"!!! And "welcome home", fellas & gals! And tough bikkies, Ms Ostapchuk...better luck next steroid, I mean Games; we all win some and lose some: truly.

Now As Far As These Other Fellas Are Concerned...

*Who'd come up with the idea of Tau Henare as Speaker? You're right, Mr Key: no way, Jose. Surely the NZ Parliament has enough thugs without appointing one prime specimen  'to rule over 'em all'...

*Maurice Williamson - Mr Lifetime Licence himself? No, again, somehow I don't think so...sorry, Maurice, nothing personal you understand...

*So it seems to be David Carter by default. Chief assets seem to be: his first name (Remember, 'Mrs McCave had 23 sons, and she named them all Dave'; and it'd certainly take the wind out of the '3 Daves' Labour ship); his surname - related no doubt to that elder gentleman of National party fame, John Carter, (now apparently snorkelling in the tropical South Pacific), also JC of the same namesake as that of the hero of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian books of yesteryear; and - perhaps somehow, somewhere - related to that elder statesman of U.S. presidential politics, the best ex-President America's ever had, Jimmy himself; and besides, he has that sober, detached, thoughtful mien befitting an adjudicator. Which reminds me, Lockwood always had an advantage, being preened for the job from his celebrated days hosting University Challenge in the early 80s (or whenever). NOT FAIR, LOCKWOOD! BUT PLEASE DON'T GO!!!

Oh Lockwood, Wherefore Dost Thou Go?

A mixed bouquet/brickbat. Zero - for taking off to London - though who can really blame you? Full marks - for  running so adeptly the deck of NZ's Titanic: quite possibly the best speaker in my lifetime. We'll miss ya.

But Your Leader's Certainly Onto Something

All credit to David Shearer for a bunch of inter-related proposals that've even earned an unprecedented amount of talkback show (host at least) applause or not downright rejection for once. For making a well thought through, carefully considered and nuanced early policy pronouncement to boot. I'm talking about school lunches in particular. Showing that occasionally the U S of A is, welfare-speaking,  decades ahead of NZ, as it is in terms of food stamps (as opposed to the dole etc). As Mr Shearer so brilliantly pre-empted governmental criticism, sure, giving folks (parents of unfed kids) jobs etc is an important question, no question about it. But that won't feed the kids, folks; and hungry bodies are not well-equipped minds! 

Ms Wall, Please Return To Your Drawing Board

And an accompanying bouquet for Syd (email correspondent to Jim Mora's show this afternoon) for effectively countering Louise Wall, M.P.'s 'bright idea' for kids to begin school at 4 years of age. Though I missed some of said email, the U.S.A. & Oz and even (the once) God's Own - in its 1877 Education Act - have all long realized 'the later the better'. That great patron saint of alternative schooling, the late, great Rudolf Steiner himself, and those educational facilities he set in motion, have long since understood the need for children to begin many activities 'later on' also, at a time more suited to their developing minds and bodies. And as said e-correspondent  aptly concluded, "Give 'em a break - let 'em be kids a little while longer" (or some such thing). The Good Lord knows they're moulded into little adults all too readily anyhow.

Oh Blow Me Home On A Vent Of Hot Air

To those presently making a rather infamous claim to ownership of the wind - what can one say? For their honesty in admitting to a practice most of us would be altogether too embarrassed to, due credit. Hopefully they'll now follow this up with a stake in hot air, as they're fast overtaking that other exceptionally windy critter, homo politicianus. 

Hone, You're - unlike usual - speaking a lotta rot

To accuse your former Maori Party colleagues - in particular, Messrs & Madams Sharples, Flavell & Turia, of being National Party lapdogs is just not true, and by a rural kilometre. If anything, methinks at this point Messr Key et al are wondering just what they got into when entering into a confidence and supply arrangement with the Maori Party. Rather, they've - by their steadfast refusal to budge on certain matters of public note - caused the present govt an endless succession of headaches, and pains in both the posterior and shoulder region. And that's just for starters.

Christopher Finlayson, You're One Heckuva Guy

All credit to the present NZ Govt for having both the balls and the guts to deliver a wonderful outcome for the long-denied and mistreated Tuhoe people...surely a win-win on all fronts, keeping such a pristine 'park' in the peoples' (at large) hands... . (Just as National in the 90s had the courage to actually do something significant for Maori, though they've never been an appreciable National-voting bloc.)

Bouquet To 'Master Wales'

Okay, I'm a pacifist, but nevertheless all credit to Master Harry for being willing to 'put his money where his mouth is' - conspicuously unlike his own former U.K. (& U.S.) commanders-in-chief, i.e. Messrs Bush 'n Blair. The Prince, much like his Old Testament royal 'forefathers' - such as King David - at least has the moral gumption to be in the forefront of his peoples' forays into deadly battle...being prepared to die for the cause, however questionable that cause may well be.

And Brickbats To Our NZ Media - 'With Knobs On': For Essentially Sidestepping the London Paralympics Almost Altogether - Where were ya, folks?!?!?

As per usual, your second guessing of your fellow kiwis has been hopelessly flawed...better luck next time, 'eh...

Plaudits To Our Paralympians!

Great Results Gals 'n Guys - you've done us all proud, plus some!

Ah, those were indeed the days, my friends

A - rather - belated mini-tribute to honour the memory of the late, great kiwi Prime Minister Norman Kirk, a man sharing the same day of decease as Princess Diana, and now apparently the 'ole songwriter Hal Davis, author of at least 3 major 50s/60s tunes & lyrics. Diana's 15th death-anniversary and Mr Kirk's 38th. A popularly much-esteemed leader of Aotearoa, who, unlike probably any other politician in the decades following, built his own house, and in today's earthquake-riddled Kaiapoi, of all places...today similarly commemorating an (in)famous anniversary, i.e., alongside its' fellow Cantabrians, the 2nd year since the first of the major Canterbury/Christchurch quakes. To Mr Kirk's lasting credit, he was one who pursued social conservatism and economic progressivism and international visionary leadership at a time when it was sadly lacking most other places. Here and overseas. 

Oh Me, Myself and I

Serves ya right for not following your own most excellent advice re the absolute necessity of (attempting to) dry(ing) clothes overnight in Dunedin. So, failing to do so the recent Saturday night, they got out late Sunday afternoon, thus ending up relatively sodden by the wee hours of Monday morning: a time at which every sensible man, woman and their dog - and moggy - are, naturally enough, 'up and at 'em rushing out (and back in) from their friendly neighbourhood clothesline. Yeah, right! (Truly - in my case anyhow.)

No Longer Under Pacific's Triple Star Guard - Watch Out Aotearoa

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
                                                                            that put darkness for light, and light for darkness"

You've made your own bed, New Zealand - now you'll have to (go) lie (down) in it...

And you might as well forget all about special divine protection of  "God's Own": after spitting decisively in His face, like Jesus He is pierced with agony in His heart, but He will accept our decision, and turn sorrowfully away - if we so choose... .

Unfortunately our decision thus - if by default - to surrender Aotearoa into the jurisdiction of the Enemy of All Good, means God will - ultimately, once we have passed that 'point of no return' - leave us to the rule of the one we have chosen...and we surely do not need to look far back across recent world history to realize that that reign can at times be exceedingly cruel and ruthless and merciless. But respect our decision He will certainly do - as the Divine Gentleman He ever is. Yes, He loves us too much not to.

(If  our parliamentary 'leaders' "sign, seal and deliver" their signatures to the 2nd and 3rd readings of the Marriage (Amendment) Bill, that is, though somehow I've - now long since - seen this as a 'fait accompli'.)                                                                     

Methinks Some Doth Protest Overly Much, And Shed Altogether Many Crocodile Tears

With Mr Parker's recent, well-deserved public excoriation for regularly messing around with boys over a sustained period, I tend to concur with those such as Newstalk ZB's intellectually-unchallenged and ever-articulate talkback host Leighton Smith, who, like so many others, including numerous callers, have put the finger precisely where it ought to point: i.e. at all those in Mr Parker's (especially school) community who conveniently turned a blind eye (and deaf ear) throughout the same extended period. Despite surely the multitude of internal alarm bells that must've been going off continually as to what might actually have been, and indeed was, going on.

Which could not but remind me of my own initial foray into teacher aiding some 10 years ago. For the fact that it took an entire 3 weeks for the standard police clearance to come through from the then Wanganui Computer and yet I was employed in the meantime irrespective surely shows the typical degree of lip service paid to the reality of child safety in  - at least some - (primary) schools. I.e. to coin the phrase employed by John Tamihere, like so many modern social agencies our schools seem 'all hui and no do-ey'.

For Credibly Setting The Record Straight

Well spoken Dr Sinead Donnelly (Friday morning on Radio New Zealand) for an impassioned, well-reasoned defence of current hospice (and hospital) practice in Aotearoa. And moreover for making an undefensive and cogent case in support of NZ's non-euthanizing status quo. Like our ever well-informed P.M. I must admit I've also long vaguely assumed that hospices, if not hospitals, 'already effectively' engaged in a kind of 'euthanasia by default', through, if not [proactively] administering pain relief, then 'by withholding medications' [in certain terminal situations]. So perhaps such an impression has been 'abroad in the land' for awhile, unless of course the P.M. is my intellectual alter ego. And though it's surely a typical media-hyped exaggeration and misrepresentation to denote Dr Donnelly's response as 'angry' or worse, I note and echo the comments of an unabashed euthanasia supporter on Mr Key's not only making such uninformed statements but moreover his extreme unwillingness to ever resile from them once 'on the record'. (Much 'food for thought' all around I feel.)  

Our Cemetery (Gravestone) Restoration Crews

Good on all those involved in this - as shown around 7.20 p.m. the other night (or 2) on Campbell Live (or Close Up): the item with Michael Holland interviewing those who have not only been severely hacked off with the appalling desecration at (in particular, one of) our numerous cemeteries around NZ, broken-down graves apparently in order to salvage the underlying precious metal/s for sordid pecuniary gain. For all those involved in the rather complex and intricate process of restoring as many of these as can feasibly be done:
"Good on ya, folks. And all power to ya. Thanks for being part of the solution, not just another - typically kiwi moaning, grumbling, bitching, griping part of the problem."

Hey, Why Didn't Dunedin Get To Welcome Home Our Victorious Olympians?!?

To Whomever It May Concern

Whoever organised the NZ Olympic Team's welcome home through the South might've surely included Dunedin, plus a number of smaller centres like Oamaru, Timaru etc...or even a 'convoy'-style trip across our entire eastern seaboard, from Invercargill north (to Blenheim); and later on, possibly the West Coast etc. C'mon, folks (who organize these things - whoever you are), please don't treat us as if we don't even exist...

Sincerely Yours

one severely hacked-off camper

Real Concern Is As 'Real Concern' Does

All power to those - both TV1 in highlighting the recent Film Festival film, Bully, and its related circumstances, and the Government - or so I understand - vis-a-vis the increasing terror/horror of the modern and typically cowardly 'art' of  'cyber bullying'. For highlighting an issue the de facto parents of the nation's kids, i.e. the schools of our land, have done sod all about for much too long. Teachers today are becoming 'desensitized' to it? You better believe it, or perhaps blind to it would be more apt. And yet 'they', or rather their chief spokespeople, have the gall to be on the Government's case - and that of new Education Minister Hekia Parata in particular - virtually without ceasing, about stuff that is marginal at best. And somewhat suspect moreover, seeing as - like 'em or hate 'em, (and Yours Truly is hardly in the former camp), they did decisively win the 2011 General Election. Something called 'democracy', folks. Check it out - it's still a word found in your average dictionary. Or are they no longer used in our classrooms?

Well, at least he fronted, and offered no excuses

All credit to Mr Breivik's dad for at least having the guts to front up for an, any interview (such as on 60 Minutes) vis-a-vis his son, and, moreover, to offer, much less attempt to, any excuses for any possible input - or lack thereof - he could have had upon him turning out as he so tragically has. Such - obviously entirely genuine and uncontrived - humility and self-censure, however deserved or undeserved, is rare indeed these days, and would be refreshing to see occasionally among those 'missing in action' deadbeat dads (and let's not forget, delinquent mums) whose in/action/s may well have helped contribute to much less awful, dire consequences, but have nevertheless sometimes permanently scarred their kids for life. Which of course isn't to claim for even a split-second that 'adults', whatever their upbringing may well have happened or not to be, aren't completely responsible for their own lives and behaviour - full stop; end of story.

P.S. And what about his mother? Doesn't she (and/or any other stepdad subsequently involved in Mr Breivik's childhood) also bear some responsibility for helping bring him up, both before and after his two parents split up? (Even if she may well now be dead, and thus unavailable for interviewing.)

Perennial Protestor He May Be, But At Least He's Consistent

Perpetually pilloried and mercilessly maligned - not that he could care, I'm sure - "good on ya, John (Minto)" for having the moral fortitude to call it as it is on the massacre of South African miners. The 'blood' splashed upon the SA embassy (I gather) fittingly betokens a government which, in such (and other) regards, has shown itself even worse, if it were possible, than its grim, gruesome, Apartheid-era predecessor. ('Dittoing' its next-door neighbour.) As I gather Desmond Tutu now acknowledges also. How Nelson Mandela must be weeping.   

Congrats - for once/a change - to the Aussies!

In particular to P.M. Julia Gillard, her Government, and specifically her Health Minister Louise Roxxon: for winning your court case against the cigarette companies. And tough bikkies to ye international purveyors of death and destruction, all of you international tobacco giants... .
                              Oz Govt, 1: Tobacco Giants, 0. Thus far, so good.

But to the NZ Government, and in particular P.M. John Key, who apparently "doesn't want to die in a ditch" over the matter - even if many other kiwis thereby (effectively) do - I have just one suggestion:
show some - real - leadership for a change. No, I mean, really!

P.S. And let's not conveniently forget all those - such as 19th Century health pioneer Ellen G White - who for anything up to one hundred-and-fifty years ago have been campaigning against the evils of tobacco (not to mention running very effective smoking cessation programmes)...and often against a backdrop of medical 'experts' and doctors still recommending it as a boon to good health!

Numbskulls without a helluva lotta nous...

So the NZ Labour Party couldn't exercise enough self-restraint and states(wo)manship to rise above the(ir) usual petty partisanship and party political oneup(wo)manship for just one (parliamentary sitting) day yesterday. Apart from the undoubted respect such would have earned them from their fellow kiwis...on the very day that the NZ Parliament duly recognized, in a truly bipartisan fashion, both its Afghani casualties and its triumphant Olympians, in a series of successive heartfelt tributes...no sooner had these finished than it was back to its/the usual  round of tit for tat interchanges with its National Government counterparts...and without even any of the 'rare, reasonable and (much less) witty' interjections so beloved of its own one-time Deputy Speaker and M.P. Geoff Braybrooke... . Was it wholly beyond the wit & the wisdom of any of its 34 MPs to actually propose to the Government that they (parliamentarians) conclude their proceedings  early in a spirit of rare bipartisanship befitting the occasion? No, as I suggest elsewhere, such dreams are ever free. Shame on y'all, and what a pity, what a great opportunity squandered... 

Put-in' the Boot in

Good on the Russian ladies (feminist troupe) put-in' their 'money where their mouth is'...& with the balls to face the music/al consequences 'to boot'...but though you're certainly finding yourself in a time of trouble, I suspect "Mother Mary" may not come to you(r aid)...But never fear, Someone's ever there...if you'll only call upon Him...

Nadzeya Ostapchuk for Comedienne Supreme

Hip hip hooray - to Nadzeya Ostapchuk - for a sheer comedy act fit for a rainy day - and are we having some of those in recent days, here on the South Island's eastern seaboard...and for a conspiracy theory, or rather 3 - to beat all conspiracy theories... Let's say/hear it again: "Hip hip hooray!!!"

And bad luck to NZ National (Radio)'s Media Watch team...you missed the boat (and even the water) entirely on that one...yep, sometimes 'first impressions' & native intuition(s) & instinctive hunches ain't altogether a bad thing, 'eh

P.S. If anyone's looking for 'the odd one out' above, sorry to say it's NO - the only part of my spell czech that ain't com-putin'...

"Welcome Home" to the entire NZ Olympic Team

For they are jolly good fellas
-and gals
for they are jolly good fellas
-and gals
for they are jolly good fellas
-and gals

and so say all of us...

Good on ya, Su'a William Sio

How unbelievably refreshing to hear that the NZ Labour Party still has a few, or maybe even just one, M.P. in its ranks with moral courage and gumption...prepared to speak up and speak out for both their own heartfelt convictions and those of their many longsuffering constituents...which is assuredly a heckuva more than can be said of at least the current crop of "Yes, Sir, No, Sir, 3 bags full, Mr Key, Sir" National Party brigade...

What a Great Effort & Performance Anyhow:CONGRATULATIONS & (Almost) CELEBRATIONS

"Bad luck" to both the male and female Black Sticks - but of course 'fingers crossed' for the latter...y'all performed outstandingly irrespective of how things have unfortunately ultimately panned out (in (semi-)final results)...in what were invariably incredibly riveting matches...esp. against some/many of the world champs, be they Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina or the USA... Even my 13-year-old nephew, as well as my very traditional, 'rugby buff', old-timer neighbour were deeply impressed...

Holding such internationally-renowned teams to draws and near-draws, and even beating the USA decisively, as well as leading Germany convincingly at one stage, were all a tv spectacle to behold;
wonderful stuff!

Definition of A 'Real' Loser (from someone who knows)

I feel somewhat qualified to comment/pontificate on this rather pertinent, extremely topical matter (of recent days), having been presented with The Book of Losers by a beloved (then despised) sister in my mid-teens (I believe for either my 15th or 16th birth-anniversary). I simply wish to share 4 ruminations on the subject.
These are components of a good working, workable definition:

*Someone who knows all the answers to irrelevant questions and/or knows the proper outcome and method in advance but is never willing to share such with others in time to tangibly improve the outcome.

*Someone who ever stands ready and prepared to throw barbs at others' efforts from the safe comfort of her or his cosy armchair.

*Someone who ridicules another's rather conspicuous failings but won't ever lend a helping hand much less finger to make matters better.

*Someone who simply knows - beyond a shadow of a doubt, though they'll rarely openly confess to the fact - that God doesn't exist, and hence proves, in his/her evident omniscience, that there really is a God.
That God clearly, though again it won't be admitted, being indistinguishable from him/herself.

But must get some shuteye, the reason  - in a totally different way - I've been a bit of a big loser myself of late...as the 'ole saying still goes, being tried and true throughout every generation: "early to bed, early to rise, makes a [person] healthy, wealthy and wise"...though admittedly am still to experience the second lot of benefits, in a 'purely' material sense that is...

Duh -"It's The Feel-Good Factor, STUPID!"

The reason 2 recent opinion polls, the first in NZ, the latest in Oz, show that their, respectively, fairly popular, highly unpopular, govts are presently, suddenly, flourishing in public esteem/support.
(No big deal really, except for the supposed surprise by the commentariat.) The real question, however, is whether such unexpected surges in support can be maintained, an especially pertinent point for Julia Gillard.

The Panel's Friday "Complaints Choir"

Brickbats and bouquets all round to Jim Mora et al's especially memorable 'Complaints Choir' halfway through last Friday's "The Panel" discussion - for its tune being 'on the tip of my tongue', so to speak, seemingly each time I awoke through the wee hours especially of the following morning...both in the (unusually late) twilight beginnings of my repose and one-and-a-half hours later, the 2nd occasion my slumber was broken...
All substantiating yet again a long held if yet unproven anecdotal theory of mine, to wit: sleep cycles, such as REM sleep, really get one's creative juices flowing and circulating - if at times deep in one's subconscious - and could surely be much more effectively utilized in the (say rote) memorization of musical lyrics and tunes, based upon the sheer number of occasions Yours Truly has awoken with a particular tune & its accompanying words on his lips, invariably listened to, generally only once, on one of my numerous records especially, on the preceding day...

"Thanks to All the Extras Who Participated In The Film": What We Would've Liked To Have Seen

A welcome credit amidst those given at the end of the film, 'In Darkness', in this year's extra good Film Festival. And a welcome change from the - rather conspicuous - absence of such a "thank you" in, seemingly many - but I may well be mistaken - of the NZ fantasy 'flicks' I've been especially enamoured of in recent years; largely since completing a 'Lord of the Rings' summer school paper at Otago varsity in early 2005. But most notably lacking from the credits in an Academy Award-acclaimed film I had a - very minor, almost inconspicuous even - part in in late 2004: i.e. 'Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', produced/directed by Andrew Adamson, Producer/Director of the subsequent Narnia films ('Prince Caspian', 'The Voyage of the Dawn Raider', and any more to come), and all the Shrek films (1/2/3).