You know the 'ole saying/query: Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Indeed. Being one of those who ever prefers to get the bad news over first, who prefers delayed gratification (as the eminent, brilliant and prolific, long since deceased author *H Scott Peck discusses in intricate detail in his inimitable The Road Less Travelled), we're gonna begin with the bad news...get it over with ipso pronto...so we can focus/concentrate on the more interesting stuff (and reason I'm bothering to post this at all).
So, the 'bad news' first. Yes, despite my innate (political/ideological) 'sympathies' ever being with both libertarian and non-interventionist Republicans (such as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul) and/or (economically) progressive Democrats of the Bernie Sanders variety, in the matter of **prematurely withdrawing United States ground troops from Syria - while Sissii International continues to run riot, to cause mayhem and terror ('alongside' Al-Assad et al) throughout the length and breadth thereof, surely doing so is a real ****no-brainer...in this case evidencing a real dearth of the grey matter.
*****As now-retiring/quitting Defence Secretary James (Jim) Mattis (effectively and succinctly) declared: It's not what the U.S. oughta be doin'! Or, as me 'ole mate Smeagol-Gollum might've - even more eloquently - expressed it: "Silly [Commander-in-Chief]: theeze ain't decent [times and] places!"
But as for the good news...I'm afraid you'll just have to wait awhile...till I've fed my face (and all the rest). But ******hopefully the remaining (more substantial raison d'etre) of this blogpost ain't far away...
*Who, bearing upon the theme of this and my most recent blogpost, himself planned a run for the White House (doubtless as an independent) back in 1984. But of course - even if he had attempted such, had scant chance thereabouts...though other independents - most notably Ross Perot in 1992, the one-time Republican Theodore Roosevelt (going for a then would-have-been historic third term) back in 1912, and (the effectively, in all but name independent) D J Trump himself (though indeed selected by the Republicans - the party base, that is, if hardly the party establishment)...have given it a fair slice of the whack, or whatever said saying is...
**Or, according to Trump's own (then perceptive) reasoning, whether and even if troops on the ground are sent/deployed and/or withdrawn/recalled, why the heck let anyone (on the enemy side) even know?!?!? That's surely one large-scale own goal, don't ya think? 'Coz if no formal, official announcement as such was/is ever made to begin with...then conditions on the ground thereafter can (after a certain period) be reevaluated and re-ascertained and if necessary rectified without any major ado let alone loss of credibility to the ***Yanks...much less effective boon for the combined forces of Sissii Internationale...
***Used by myself as a backhand term of endearment (i.e. only a gentle dig in the sense of I happen to like the word and see precious few other opportunities to use it) - after all, I've shared American citizenship from birth.
****Using said term, not as commonly employed, but in its strict(est) technical meaning.
*****And now yet another very senior official, the head of America's Anti-Sissii coordination outfit, has joined him.
******And indeed has long since been scribbled out (in draft form)...I just need to decipher and then translate the same into legible (and understandable) English.
Part Two: A Necessary Bridge from the Bad News to the Good News - admittedly somewhat (i.e. three days, to be precise) later rather than sooner...
So what's to celebrate? Very little ...at all...if you pedantically, scrupulously, and I'd suggest wearisomely (not to mention cringe-worthily and in a highly partisan fashion) follow the standard media script...which is essentially: if Trump's 'a-fore it' , then hey, ipso facto, I'm agin it.
But seriously, folks, that's the stuff of childish, *'all-black - all-white' thinking, whereby everything ultimately comes/boils down to the glib, simplistic 'my tribe's (ever and always) right, your tribe's (ever and always) wrong' kinda perspective upon all matters under consideration...which gets everybody precisely nowhere in no time at all...
*Thanks or at least credit here to the God-gifted co-authors Henry Cloud and John Townsend. Though in this instance I might not be directly quoting any specific statement they've made on the matter in any of their wonderful books over the years, such as Boundaries, Safe People, The Mom Factor (in particular), this concept comes out clearly especially in the latter two tomes.
Wherein significant life stages, such as early childhood, with its bonding, later infancy with its separation, the teenage/adolescent years with their individuating/independence and adulthood with its maturity, each tends to have its own corresponding developmental needs, challenges and goals (to be successfully mastered), and which if not successfully 'dealt with' at that time, can cause almost endless later life difficulties, headaches, heartaches and complications.
To Be Continued: Part Three: Finally - The Good News!
Yes, folks, there is indeed - amidst all the current political turmoil in Washington D.C., and all the social and ideological ferment throughout American society (upon all manner of fronts and issues) - some/a *'smidgen' of good news...upon the U S frontier... . No, not vis-a-vis the ongoing immigration 'standoff' (or however you'd describe it) on America's southern/Mexican border, but in the capital itself...
For - perhaps entirely unbeknownst to the vast majority of international onlookers closely following all the ins and outs of the present Trump Administration and all the various attempts to bring about its premature demise, and no doubt no thanks to the mainstream media with its never-ending and **quite frankly wholly unprecedented, highly partisan attempts to ever and only portray Trump & Co in the very worst light possible (till it's become incredibly wearisome to those who still value the long-established principle of true journalism, i.e. dispassionate impartiality, balance and fair play)...
Guess what, folks? Under all our noses - no, there has been some, however minimal, coverage here in God's Own (and c/o the internationally-respected and renowned BBC) - ******the First Step Act, a major prison reform bill, has now been passed through both/***all three of America's legislative and executive arms of government.
***********Following an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives passing the original draft of the legislation back in May, the Senate just recently gave it the thumbs up with an exceedingly uncommon massive bipartisan majority (of 87 to 12), and pretty well immediately thereafter it readily gained the enthusiastic, expected sign-off by the President himself.
For the time being let's just say the new law, coming only a couple years after a similar (I believe more limited) ********Obama-initiated bill was indefinitely held up on the order paper by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell in the run-up to Presidential Election 2016, thereby effectively putting (thankfully, only temporary) paid to it, is a good, great ******first step towards overhauling America's federal justice system. Innovative legislation which the BBC characterized as a sweeping criminal justice reform bill seeking to address concerns the U.S. locks up too many of its citizens.
Championed by President Trump, spearheaded by his nephew-in-law, White House Advisor Jared Kushner, and passed by sweeping legislative majorities, the law will actually only deal with those incarcerated in America's federal penitentiaries, 10% (i.e. around about 220,000) of the nation's 2.2 million jailed citizens.
But surely that's a worthy and worthwhile start, especially when one considers, however cursorily, the endemic problems in the United States justice system as revealed to one and all through the systemic issues brought into the open by the Black Lives Matter movement. And when one also realizes that the U S of A has long 'led the world' (proportionately-speaking as well as numerically) in the sheer number of its jailed citizens.
*Understated for emphasis, you'll realize.
**Need I repeat yet again how personally I am neither an especial supporter of Trump himself or his Administration? Surely not, but as a budding journalist from my early teenage years I still do happen to value the (these days, admittedly rare) existence of a truly independent media... -and incidentally, the former (Trump et al) are most definitely not the only purveyors of fake news in our day and age!
***Technically speaking, America has three basic arms of government, the executive (i.e. the President), the legislative/legislature (i.e. both the Senate and the House of Representatives) and the judiciary (the Supreme Court)...a fact which is the basis for the well-known 'separation of powers' and 'checks and balances' so fundamental to the American system of government.
But strictly-speaking, in all legislation passed into law it takes (all of) the Senate and House and ****President to come to agreement...hence I said 'all three of America's legislative and executive arms', which didn't thereby omit or exclude the Supreme Court, it's just that they are not involved in the drafting and enacting of legislation, only in the later reviewing and possible overturning/rescinding of any and every law passed onto the statute books... . *****Whew!
****Who also holds a **********veto power over any and all legislation previously enacted by the House and Senate.
*****Nevertheless probably necessary in our times of increasingly superficial political understanding.
******Yes, my vocab is verily highly original these days, folks, but sometimes one simply can't express things any better than has been already done. Though, interestingly enough, and to my immense surprise, the law's title is not just some sort of cute catch-all name, but a brilliant acronym: *******'The Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act'!!!
*******Again I'm indebted (here as elsewhere in this blogpost) to Wikipedia's online entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Step_Act. As I am also (throughout) to the BBC, and here to its online version: Https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46613564. (And occasionally to that reputable left-wing British newspaper, the Guardian: c/o Https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/18/first-step-act-criminal.)
********The (2015) Sentencing Reform and Corrections *********Act.
**********Which (i.e. both Senate and House of Representatives) can themselves override said veto of the President! Yes, those aforementioned 'pesky little' checks and balances.
*********Of course Obama's legislation was only drafted and not ultimately enacted, so really just (what we'd call in New Zealand) a 'bill'.
***********Actually Wikipedia online contradicts some of the other (online) timeline versions, and according to its useful sidebar thereabouts the following is how it's come about (legislatively-speaking):
(1) Unanimously passed by U S Senate (August 3, 2017).
(2) Voice-approved by U S House of Representatives (July 25) with amendment.
(3) Senate agrees (December 18th) to H of R amendment with further amendment.
(4) H of R agrees (Dec 20th) to Senate amendment by 358 to 36.
(5) President Trump signs it into law on December 21st.
Part Four: Considering All That This Landmark Legislation Signifies
(Hopefully posted by the end of the year!)
True to my word, here goes...on New Years Eve, 2018, no less
As succinctly as time allows, and the indulgence of viewers may tolerate, according to various (afore-cited) media sources - i.e. the BBC News, the Guardian, and Wikipedia - the bill 'would overhaul the U.S. justice system by giving more discretion to judges during sentencing and by strengthening prisoner rehabilitation efforts.' 'Three Strikes' provisions - such as we have here in New Zealand these days (since 2009 I believe), and recently entrenched by deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters against Labour Party and Green Party opposition - will be reduced to 25 *(!) years for 'drug felons'...though **evidently these are not hardcore violent individuals (as I've latterly discovered).
Mandatory minimum sentences for serious drug crimes will be simultaneously reduced. And $375 million has been authorized in federal spending on jobs training and educational programmes for prisoners. While halfway house and home confinement provisions mean families will have easier access to incarcerated relatives, and there will be gentler treatment of pregnant (and other) female prisoners (in various ways).
Though it would seem Donald Trump, ***however late in the piece, appears to be taking some of the glory - hey, what's new, folks? - for the legislation going through, it was his special advisor, Jared Kushner, apparently, who played a major role in facilitating the bill's ultimate passage through all tiers of the American legislature, so really - in the final analysis - who cares who gets the credit? And certainly Trump's tweet, moments after its successful passage, that "my job is to fight for all Americans, even those who have made mistakes" effectively signposts in simplicity its real utility.
He went on to declare: "This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance - to those who earn it. In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved."
However the two - one a Democrat, the other a Republican - chief 'movers and shakers' in the whole process has apparently been, according to Jessica Jackson Sloan, national director of 'twt.50'(?) - a criminal justice reform advocacy group - Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Dick Durban...who she - and no less than ******Pat Robertson of the 700 Club, upon their weekday telecast - 'singled out for praise for "leading their respective parties to consensus on one of the most important challenges our country faces [given] the catastrophic [situation] of the incarceration industry."
Cory Booker, a rising New Jersey Senator in the Democratic Party *******with eyes on the 2020 Presidential Election, himself 'said that the nation's prisons were full of Americans struggling with mental illness and addiction and who are overwhelmingly poor'...and suggested that America's 'criminal justice system feeds on certain communities and not on others...add[ing] that the bill represented a step toward healing for these communities'.
In conclusion, though we might be somewhat disinclined to, let's herein give the penultimate words/summation on the legislation to Mr Trump, who trumpeted that "This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance - to those who earn it. In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved."
But surely the final word - 'verdict' - goes to Senator Booker, who declared: "Let's make no mistake, this legislation, which is one small step, will affect thousands and thousands of lives." Although he could well have said - without a shade of exaggeration - 'significantly affect tens and hundreds and even thousands - of thousands - i.e. millions - of American lives.'
*In view of NZ's own 'softly, softly' approach to all but our most serious offenders, and even then the ability to gain parole (within two decades or so) has made many throughout our nation perplexed and frankly flabbergasted - not to mention appalled and disgusted! - in recent times.
**'Except for those who prove serious violent felons' (as one reference put it).
***Which isn't to imply that he hasn't philosophically supported the basic idea of the legislation from the get-go, only that the matter was already well on the political boiler, from President ****Obama's uncompleted tasks, upon Trump's assuming office in 2016. Which latterly staunch, unwavering support is yet another reason why - though you'll rarely if ever hear about it from ye politically partisan (to a fault) mainstream media (throughout the West) - Trump's *****approval ratings among black Americans have been in the region of 37%...surely somewhat impressive for a Republican per se, let alone one constantly vilified from pillar to post as someone intolerant of minorities either in America or abroad!
Which might just also explain why noted neurosurgeon and also wannabe 2016 Republican presidential nominee, Ben Carson, was so willing to serve in President Trump's cabinet post-the election. As Urban (Affairs) and Housing Secretary, if I remember rightly.
****Who, through no real fault of his own - as I explain earlier - was simply unable to (successfully) progress his own initial legislation, through an extremely gridlocked, partisan legislature. So what else is new!
*****That is, they entertain a positive opinion of him (I recall it being expressed).
******Though I certainly don't share much of Robertson's political/ideological perspective on matters American, he suggested that ye 'ole 'lock 'im up and throw away the key' mentality appears bankrupt.
*******Or at least there is much speculation abroad about this progressive black American.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Yes, One Ought Not - they say - Speak Ill of the Dead...But I say: War Criminals are Still Just That...However Much Decorated and Commended by Memory-Lapsed and Frankly Delusionary Rose-Tinted Glasswearers: The Unduly Generous Eulogizing of the (Extremely Fraught) Legacy of America's 41st President
Yes, I know I'm posting this incredibly late, way after the fact (and all the rest)...and no, I'm not claiming that a very busy fortnight house-sitting (moreover, pretty well out of the blue) plus accompanying dreadful sleeps especially both pre-and post- this are a perfect, unassailable excuse or the like. And no, I'm not herein referring to (President) 'George Dubya', the ever-misunderestimated and *unduly-criticized son of the 41st President, and so, yes, I am referring here to President HW Bush Senior...
...whose death at the ripe old age of 94 made world headlines (for quite awhile) recently - coincidentally on the very heels of - more precisely, a few hours after - my having made mention of him - or moreover whether himself or President Jimmy Carter would be next to 'kick the bucket' (though I can assure readers it was not described in those terms)...but, I believe - to my brother - simply in terms of the apparent longevity of other recent former United States presidents (though Richard Milhous Nixon of Watergate infamy survived to just 81, Gerald Ford departed this life at the good 'ole age of 93, as did Ronald Reagan only two years earlier). Whew! Enough said already!
Since folk generally, including and especially 'the [mainstream] media', seem to have no qualms whatsoever whenever referring to the likes of say, a **Saddam Hussein, a Shah of Iran or an Ayatollah Khomeini in less than flattering or endearing terms however deceased they may well now happen to be, I'd simply suggest including such as President Bush Senior among these ill-famed 'Unworthies' is not altogether either unduly unfair nor all that implausible.
And my essential reasons, my raison d'etre for including, for thus classifying and categorizing the 41st President in such a way...of daring to contradict the received wisdom of our age which makes out that Bush Senior was some sort of latter-day mini-Messiah for (somewhat) presiding over the admittedly highly historic, even epochal breakup of the Communist Bloc and dissolution of the Soviet Empire...as the chief of his alleged accomplishments (among other things)...
...is - in brief - as follows:
Vis-a-vis President George Herbert Walker Bush's involvement in the First U.S.-Iraq ('Gulf') War... : Known as Operation Desert Storm and presided over by General ('Stormin') Norman Schwarzkopf, the (***airborne, as opposed to ground-based section of the) battle to retake Kuwait from Iraq gained Bush Senior major respect or at least due deference abroad and extensive kudos at home, even elevating his popular support (previously on the major decline through a sluggish American economy and recession) to near historic levels, if I remember rightly into the low nineties...
Unfortunately (to be euphemistic), or more pertinently tragically - for those involved 'on the ground' in Iraq (and in the desert between there and Kuwait) - around 200,000 surrendering Iraqi soldiers were apparently massacred by United States marines (unbeknownst to the general, TV-viewing global public), and the longsuffering Kurds in the northern quadrant of Iraq were pretty well left as sheep for the slaughter by President Bush himself...who handily and adroitly employed a cunning and 'brilliant' piece of ****technicalese to wheedle his way out of prior solemn commitments to those selfsame people that yes, the U S of A, would readily come to their defence...and save them from the subsequent nerve/chemical gas 'onslaught' waged upon their innocent civilian population by President Saddam Hussein.
How, having been given pretty well carte blanche by the United Nations...in an unprecedented near-unanimous support for the otherwise unilateral American action in rescuing Kuwait from Iraqi clutches...Bush & Co later on managed to attempt to justify effectively leaving these various Iraqis (surrendering soldiers and innocent civilians) in the lurch...however fancy a ****technical, hifalutin' an argument (as was then published in Time magazine, I believe)...is quite frankly the kinda stuff that would've made *****Machiavelli proud.
Come back, Dubya...all is forgiven. But, more seriously, if my Bible has any sort of meaning at all - and I certainly believe it does - then any wistful assumption that President George W Bush might well have (as he indeed enunciated at his Dad's funeral) of President George (HW) Bush's 'looking down from heaven (thereupon)', quite apart from being essentially thoroughly unbiblical...is moreover, I'd respectfully suggest, Scripturally unwarranted...as unrepentant evildoers, liars and murderers - according to every version I've ever managed to get ahold of, anyhow - all ultimately meet their just (and yes, exceedingly sad) fate...not upon those blissful shores...but in the Lake of Fire...
*No, I'm far from a supporter of the Iraq War - indeed Bush Junior's 'actions' there opened a veritable Pandora's Box - a hornet's nest of trouble - which has subsequently miserably afflicted our planet. I just have some sympathy for/with a son seeking to dutifully fulfil what he misguidedly perceived as his father's unfulfilled mission...and certainly in terms of the three major critiques I cite herein the epitaph 'Mission Accomplished' could hardly have been attached to President Bush Senior's Iraqi involvement. No, not by a long shot.
**Whom I include as opposed to such notorious folk as Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao-Tse Tung or Adolf Hitler...simply to be rather circumspect (as far as possible) in my contrasts and comparisons.
***Having watched - glued to my/our seats - this first ever '24/7' TV-style war on our tellies (while over in Oz, following a terrific thunder crash in Brisbane) in late 1990/early 1991.
****Admittedly my memory is at times somewhat challenged (as one sibling would readily agree!), though to the best of my recollection Bush Senior wrote an elaborate raison d'etre post-Desert Storm as to why the targeted assassination of various (however bad) world leaders was illegitimate or unlawful...and yet somehow-or-other the selfsame person can simultaneously justify (at least in his own mind) the apparent massacring of those aforementioned (200,000 - though the exact number matters not) Iraqi soldiers. Perhaps the term 'cognitive dissonance', sheer inconsistency or moral hypocrisy covers the natural dilemma one looking objectively at such a scenario might have thereabouts... . And though I've perhaps conflated Bush's solemn undertaking to the Kurds with his elaborate defence of not taking out Saddam Hussein...to ye average Iraqi I'd imagine the feeling was the same: yet another powerful politician who promises the world and delivers a damp squib...
...a forgivable matter in many another circumstance perhaps, but when the lives of (in both major above instances, innumerable) innocents (whether Kurdish civilians or effectively post-combatant Iraqi troops) is concerned, well...you form your own conclusions...
*****My ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988), is, as ever, very much on the mark, both with 'Machiavellian':'adj. destitute of political morality, ruled by expediency only: crafty, perfidious in conduct, activity'...and, more especially, 'perfidious':'adj. faithless: unfaithful: basely violating faith(******bold lettering all mine)'.
******For the Iraqi Kurdish population had every reason to expect the then American President to honour his pledged word...which he didn't...and thus his son felt it his own duty to pick up the pieces where his dad left off...and we all well know where that eventually ended up, don't we...
*******Due acknowledgment to John Pilger for his courageous investigative journalism giving the expose on the fate of surrendering Iraqi soldiers...the full dossier, so to speak...in Distant Voices.
...whose death at the ripe old age of 94 made world headlines (for quite awhile) recently - coincidentally on the very heels of - more precisely, a few hours after - my having made mention of him - or moreover whether himself or President Jimmy Carter would be next to 'kick the bucket' (though I can assure readers it was not described in those terms)...but, I believe - to my brother - simply in terms of the apparent longevity of other recent former United States presidents (though Richard Milhous Nixon of Watergate infamy survived to just 81, Gerald Ford departed this life at the good 'ole age of 93, as did Ronald Reagan only two years earlier). Whew! Enough said already!
Since folk generally, including and especially 'the [mainstream] media', seem to have no qualms whatsoever whenever referring to the likes of say, a **Saddam Hussein, a Shah of Iran or an Ayatollah Khomeini in less than flattering or endearing terms however deceased they may well now happen to be, I'd simply suggest including such as President Bush Senior among these ill-famed 'Unworthies' is not altogether either unduly unfair nor all that implausible.
And my essential reasons, my raison d'etre for including, for thus classifying and categorizing the 41st President in such a way...of daring to contradict the received wisdom of our age which makes out that Bush Senior was some sort of latter-day mini-Messiah for (somewhat) presiding over the admittedly highly historic, even epochal breakup of the Communist Bloc and dissolution of the Soviet Empire...as the chief of his alleged accomplishments (among other things)...
...is - in brief - as follows:
Vis-a-vis President George Herbert Walker Bush's involvement in the First U.S.-Iraq ('Gulf') War... : Known as Operation Desert Storm and presided over by General ('Stormin') Norman Schwarzkopf, the (***airborne, as opposed to ground-based section of the) battle to retake Kuwait from Iraq gained Bush Senior major respect or at least due deference abroad and extensive kudos at home, even elevating his popular support (previously on the major decline through a sluggish American economy and recession) to near historic levels, if I remember rightly into the low nineties...
Unfortunately (to be euphemistic), or more pertinently tragically - for those involved 'on the ground' in Iraq (and in the desert between there and Kuwait) - around 200,000 surrendering Iraqi soldiers were apparently massacred by United States marines (unbeknownst to the general, TV-viewing global public), and the longsuffering Kurds in the northern quadrant of Iraq were pretty well left as sheep for the slaughter by President Bush himself...who handily and adroitly employed a cunning and 'brilliant' piece of ****technicalese to wheedle his way out of prior solemn commitments to those selfsame people that yes, the U S of A, would readily come to their defence...and save them from the subsequent nerve/chemical gas 'onslaught' waged upon their innocent civilian population by President Saddam Hussein.
How, having been given pretty well carte blanche by the United Nations...in an unprecedented near-unanimous support for the otherwise unilateral American action in rescuing Kuwait from Iraqi clutches...Bush & Co later on managed to attempt to justify effectively leaving these various Iraqis (surrendering soldiers and innocent civilians) in the lurch...however fancy a ****technical, hifalutin' an argument (as was then published in Time magazine, I believe)...is quite frankly the kinda stuff that would've made *****Machiavelli proud.
Come back, Dubya...all is forgiven. But, more seriously, if my Bible has any sort of meaning at all - and I certainly believe it does - then any wistful assumption that President George W Bush might well have (as he indeed enunciated at his Dad's funeral) of President George (HW) Bush's 'looking down from heaven (thereupon)', quite apart from being essentially thoroughly unbiblical...is moreover, I'd respectfully suggest, Scripturally unwarranted...as unrepentant evildoers, liars and murderers - according to every version I've ever managed to get ahold of, anyhow - all ultimately meet their just (and yes, exceedingly sad) fate...not upon those blissful shores...but in the Lake of Fire...
*No, I'm far from a supporter of the Iraq War - indeed Bush Junior's 'actions' there opened a veritable Pandora's Box - a hornet's nest of trouble - which has subsequently miserably afflicted our planet. I just have some sympathy for/with a son seeking to dutifully fulfil what he misguidedly perceived as his father's unfulfilled mission...and certainly in terms of the three major critiques I cite herein the epitaph 'Mission Accomplished' could hardly have been attached to President Bush Senior's Iraqi involvement. No, not by a long shot.
**Whom I include as opposed to such notorious folk as Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao-Tse Tung or Adolf Hitler...simply to be rather circumspect (as far as possible) in my contrasts and comparisons.
***Having watched - glued to my/our seats - this first ever '24/7' TV-style war on our tellies (while over in Oz, following a terrific thunder crash in Brisbane) in late 1990/early 1991.
****Admittedly my memory is at times somewhat challenged (as one sibling would readily agree!), though to the best of my recollection Bush Senior wrote an elaborate raison d'etre post-Desert Storm as to why the targeted assassination of various (however bad) world leaders was illegitimate or unlawful...and yet somehow-or-other the selfsame person can simultaneously justify (at least in his own mind) the apparent massacring of those aforementioned (200,000 - though the exact number matters not) Iraqi soldiers. Perhaps the term 'cognitive dissonance', sheer inconsistency or moral hypocrisy covers the natural dilemma one looking objectively at such a scenario might have thereabouts... . And though I've perhaps conflated Bush's solemn undertaking to the Kurds with his elaborate defence of not taking out Saddam Hussein...to ye average Iraqi I'd imagine the feeling was the same: yet another powerful politician who promises the world and delivers a damp squib...
...a forgivable matter in many another circumstance perhaps, but when the lives of (in both major above instances, innumerable) innocents (whether Kurdish civilians or effectively post-combatant Iraqi troops) is concerned, well...you form your own conclusions...
*****My ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988), is, as ever, very much on the mark, both with 'Machiavellian':'adj. destitute of political morality, ruled by expediency only: crafty, perfidious in conduct, activity'...and, more especially, 'perfidious':'adj. faithless: unfaithful: basely violating faith(******bold lettering all mine)'.
******For the Iraqi Kurdish population had every reason to expect the then American President to honour his pledged word...which he didn't...and thus his son felt it his own duty to pick up the pieces where his dad left off...and we all well know where that eventually ended up, don't we...
*******Due acknowledgment to John Pilger for his courageous investigative journalism giving the expose on the fate of surrendering Iraqi soldiers...the full dossier, so to speak...in Distant Voices.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
A Pending Cause Celebre with Cause for Concern
For only the second time in as many weeks, 'hats off' to New Zealand's Justice Minister, Andrew Little: this time for taking it to an international social media conglomerate of the likes of Google...for, effectively, transgressing the law (of our land, anyhow) - or at least coming awfully close thereto; by releasing the name of the accused/apprehended (in the now *globally well-reported homicide investigation into the gruesome murder of the erstwhile British backpacker and O.E.-er Grace Millane)...and thus apparently overriding the name suppression that, upon appeal, the apprehended suspect, legally **'enjoys'...
As Mr Little puts the matter (quite genuinely, I happen to believe), this is all about ensuring a fair trial...so that Ms Millane's killer is - properly - convicted...and not - somehow-or-other - released upon some specious legal technicality. Surely she and her family deserve no less.
Yes, those outfits like Google with such overarching transnational powers do indeed have corresponding (corporate) responsibilities...that they are duty bound to comply with...at all times.
Though admittedly such a law - or, more aptly, the allowance of/for such a get-out clause by the defendant - corresponding (timewise) as it just so happens to with a certain very high-profile RCC figure over in Oz currently receiving conviction for child sexual abuse, does indeed seem both silly and ridiculous...to any and every half-sane onlooker with even an ounce of common decency or basic humanity in his or her bones. And surely once such a conviction has been made and guilt established beyond reasonable doubt (as in Oz) such name suppression should no longer be provided, but should be - automatically - lifted, no longer serving any real useful purpose?
Though you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, even among NZ's hard-bitten criminal fraternity, I dare say, with any truck whatsoever for such a cold-blooded murderer, let alone having any time for the mere existence even of such a law...nevertheless 'the law is the law', and is part of our age-old Westminster tradition of due process for one and all, and so once you start to tamper with any part of such a basic legal framework, you'd better be awfully careful in tampering with part of the well-established foundation thereof lest the entire edifice ultimately come crashing down around our feet.
Though it's surely cool comfort for Grace Millane's deeply loyal, loving and close-knit family, compromise the law a little here and there in order to get at the (alleged) perpetrator, and before you know what's happened you'll often end up effectively, however inadvertently, 'harming' the real victim instead...and thus letting the nasty so-and-so ultimately off scot-free (as his lawyers claim miscarriage of justice has occurred)...
But even were that to occur, there's One Who knows the real truth and Grace's killer will one day be held to account at His heavenly bar...where there will be no mistakes...and sentence will be final...and will involve 'judgement without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy'...and moreover, no remorse...
*At least in the (pertinent jurisdiction of the) United Kingdom, anyhow.
**Though I cringe at using such a word to in any way, shape or form characterize someone who - from all accounts - has such a sadistic and perverted understanding of what a human being is.
As Mr Little puts the matter (quite genuinely, I happen to believe), this is all about ensuring a fair trial...so that Ms Millane's killer is - properly - convicted...and not - somehow-or-other - released upon some specious legal technicality. Surely she and her family deserve no less.
Yes, those outfits like Google with such overarching transnational powers do indeed have corresponding (corporate) responsibilities...that they are duty bound to comply with...at all times.
Though admittedly such a law - or, more aptly, the allowance of/for such a get-out clause by the defendant - corresponding (timewise) as it just so happens to with a certain very high-profile RCC figure over in Oz currently receiving conviction for child sexual abuse, does indeed seem both silly and ridiculous...to any and every half-sane onlooker with even an ounce of common decency or basic humanity in his or her bones. And surely once such a conviction has been made and guilt established beyond reasonable doubt (as in Oz) such name suppression should no longer be provided, but should be - automatically - lifted, no longer serving any real useful purpose?
Though you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, even among NZ's hard-bitten criminal fraternity, I dare say, with any truck whatsoever for such a cold-blooded murderer, let alone having any time for the mere existence even of such a law...nevertheless 'the law is the law', and is part of our age-old Westminster tradition of due process for one and all, and so once you start to tamper with any part of such a basic legal framework, you'd better be awfully careful in tampering with part of the well-established foundation thereof lest the entire edifice ultimately come crashing down around our feet.
Though it's surely cool comfort for Grace Millane's deeply loyal, loving and close-knit family, compromise the law a little here and there in order to get at the (alleged) perpetrator, and before you know what's happened you'll often end up effectively, however inadvertently, 'harming' the real victim instead...and thus letting the nasty so-and-so ultimately off scot-free (as his lawyers claim miscarriage of justice has occurred)...
But even were that to occur, there's One Who knows the real truth and Grace's killer will one day be held to account at His heavenly bar...where there will be no mistakes...and sentence will be final...and will involve 'judgement without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy'...and moreover, no remorse...
*At least in the (pertinent jurisdiction of the) United Kingdom, anyhow.
**Though I cringe at using such a word to in any way, shape or form characterize someone who - from all accounts - has such a sadistic and perverted understanding of what a human being is.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Leadership on Display...and Simultaneously Abjectly Lacking: Proving Oneself a True States(wo)man - or Not: Theresa May Vis-a-vis Jeremy Corbyn
Or, Why One Cannot Help But Admire Theresa May...
*For having willingly embraced a publicly-endorsed 'scheme' she'd previously (at least publicly) opposed.
*For having done so without reservation.
*She's doggedly stuck to the task (and 'to her guns') through thick and thin.
*She's steadfastly refused to glibly vilify her opponents...whether without/outside or inside/within her own party.
*For having gone the extra mile (and then some)...and pursued the understood goal to the nth degree.
*For having compromised her own personal preferences wherever and whenever possible.
*For giving and infusing new meaning (in)to the age-old mascot image of the British Bulldog.
Unfortunately the selfsame cannot - remotely - be said of her - soon to be *erstwhile? - Labour opponent, Jeremy Corbyn...
Though long - and from early on (and long prior, no doubt, if I'd heard of/known about him) a fan/supporter of Corbyn's brand of politics...for all sorts of reasons (and even having early on scribbled out a long-winded defence/support of him and his leadership style - sadly long since mislaid!)...on this all-important matter of the Brexit he's done himself absolutely no favours whatsoever...
Why forsooth? For playing petty partisan party politics with a matter deserving of much more gravitas...and moreover statesmanship. In seeking to score mere parliamentary debating points he's revealed himself a mere partisan politico...like so many others...to my own intense disappointment. At least viewing things from this considerable (Antipodean) distance...
Yes, I'd argue that Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has thereby missed his own 'opportunity of a lifetime'...to rise above sordid political partisanship and likewise willingly embrace the expressed will of the British people...the citizens of the United Kingdom...which, paradoxically enough, he **had actually (long since) fundamentally agreed with...
No, Mr Corbyn doesn't emerge with flying colours (from the Brexit debacle)...and certainly hasn't bedecked himself or his own political brand with reams of glory...
...which arguably, say, a Hilary Benn - the effective 'heir apparent' to that grand old 'Granddaddy' of left-wing British politics, his own father Tony Benn - would have...
And the salient, underlying lesson of 'the whole sorry saga'? Try to please everybody...thereby succeed in pleasing nobody!
*Referring of course to Ms May('s possible imminent departure), quite obviously, rather than Mr Corbyn('s); but - being the pedant that I ever am - that doesn't rule out the applicability of that word 'erstwhile'...relating as it clearly does to the 'relationship' between the two.
**I.e. Corbyn's apparently long been suspicious of the European Union and no 'Europhile'.
*For having willingly embraced a publicly-endorsed 'scheme' she'd previously (at least publicly) opposed.
*For having done so without reservation.
*She's doggedly stuck to the task (and 'to her guns') through thick and thin.
*She's steadfastly refused to glibly vilify her opponents...whether without/outside or inside/within her own party.
*For having gone the extra mile (and then some)...and pursued the understood goal to the nth degree.
*For having compromised her own personal preferences wherever and whenever possible.
*For giving and infusing new meaning (in)to the age-old mascot image of the British Bulldog.
Unfortunately the selfsame cannot - remotely - be said of her - soon to be *erstwhile? - Labour opponent, Jeremy Corbyn...
Though long - and from early on (and long prior, no doubt, if I'd heard of/known about him) a fan/supporter of Corbyn's brand of politics...for all sorts of reasons (and even having early on scribbled out a long-winded defence/support of him and his leadership style - sadly long since mislaid!)...on this all-important matter of the Brexit he's done himself absolutely no favours whatsoever...
Why forsooth? For playing petty partisan party politics with a matter deserving of much more gravitas...and moreover statesmanship. In seeking to score mere parliamentary debating points he's revealed himself a mere partisan politico...like so many others...to my own intense disappointment. At least viewing things from this considerable (Antipodean) distance...
Yes, I'd argue that Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has thereby missed his own 'opportunity of a lifetime'...to rise above sordid political partisanship and likewise willingly embrace the expressed will of the British people...the citizens of the United Kingdom...which, paradoxically enough, he **had actually (long since) fundamentally agreed with...
No, Mr Corbyn doesn't emerge with flying colours (from the Brexit debacle)...and certainly hasn't bedecked himself or his own political brand with reams of glory...
...which arguably, say, a Hilary Benn - the effective 'heir apparent' to that grand old 'Granddaddy' of left-wing British politics, his own father Tony Benn - would have...
And the salient, underlying lesson of 'the whole sorry saga'? Try to please everybody...thereby succeed in pleasing nobody!
*Referring of course to Ms May('s possible imminent departure), quite obviously, rather than Mr Corbyn('s); but - being the pedant that I ever am - that doesn't rule out the applicability of that word 'erstwhile'...relating as it clearly does to the 'relationship' between the two.
**I.e. Corbyn's apparently long been suspicious of the European Union and no 'Europhile'.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Employing a Sledge-Hammer to Crack a Nut...and thus Straining a Gnat and Swallowing a Camel
And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of [by] many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse... The Newberry Bible: Mark 9:25-26.
Thus John Mark, as the apostle Peter no doubt conveyed to him (for his gospel, i.e. Mark), relays how in her desperation one sought out the One Who had never lost a case and would never fail anyone...who sought Him in their desperate need...whatever that need might happen to be.
And so this blogpost - however belatedly published, though essentially drafted mentally many Sundays ago now - is simply to record both my absolute disgust with the so-called medical fraternity/ establishment of Aotearoa-New Zealand for their heavy-handed tactics with Joe Williams, M.D., and my solidarity with said self-effacing doctor (and apparently former Prime Minister of 'the Pacific Islands')...in Dr Williams' recent conviction before and by the N.Z. Medical Council and subsequent order to pay a large sum in damages...
I also commend both TV3's (Sunday morning show) 'The Hui' and (a Friday edition of) RNZ National's 5 p.m. Checkpoint Show for giving much exposure to this flagrant incidence of heavy-handedness by the 'experts' towards one who dared to do the right thing by any number of severely-eczema-afflicted patients - primarily if not exclusively (youngish) children - and indeed succeeded, I've little doubt, beyond his wildest imaginations...only to be 'had up' *for transgressing the technical letter of New Zealand's health establishment guidelines in the process...
If anything, my title above, alongside the well-known, similar-ish (though admittedly somewhat different) saying of Jesus quoted...pretty much say it all...(for now)...
But trust me, I'm just getting started...
*Interestingly - and appallingly - Williams' remarkable success with ten-odd severe eczema sufferers apparently made not a dime - an iota - of difference to the orthodox medical fraternity - and that, folks, is surely an indictment of the modern-day Western medical establishment if there ever were one...don't ye think?
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thus John Mark, as the apostle Peter no doubt conveyed to him (for his gospel, i.e. Mark), relays how in her desperation one sought out the One Who had never lost a case and would never fail anyone...who sought Him in their desperate need...whatever that need might happen to be.
And so this blogpost - however belatedly published, though essentially drafted mentally many Sundays ago now - is simply to record both my absolute disgust with the so-called medical fraternity/ establishment of Aotearoa-New Zealand for their heavy-handed tactics with Joe Williams, M.D., and my solidarity with said self-effacing doctor (and apparently former Prime Minister of 'the Pacific Islands')...in Dr Williams' recent conviction before and by the N.Z. Medical Council and subsequent order to pay a large sum in damages...
I also commend both TV3's (Sunday morning show) 'The Hui' and (a Friday edition of) RNZ National's 5 p.m. Checkpoint Show for giving much exposure to this flagrant incidence of heavy-handedness by the 'experts' towards one who dared to do the right thing by any number of severely-eczema-afflicted patients - primarily if not exclusively (youngish) children - and indeed succeeded, I've little doubt, beyond his wildest imaginations...only to be 'had up' *for transgressing the technical letter of New Zealand's health establishment guidelines in the process...
If anything, my title above, alongside the well-known, similar-ish (though admittedly somewhat different) saying of Jesus quoted...pretty much say it all...(for now)...
But trust me, I'm just getting started...
*Interestingly - and appallingly - Williams' remarkable success with ten-odd severe eczema sufferers apparently made not a dime - an iota - of difference to the orthodox medical fraternity - and that, folks, is surely an indictment of the modern-day Western medical establishment if there ever were one...don't ye think?
TO BE CONTINUED...
Monday, November 26, 2018
A Gutsy Lady Gives the Untold Story behind Western Abortion Epidemic: Yes, it inevitably leaves traumatic, irreversible scars upon the women involved
All power to the likes of Barbara Hill, who, a little while back, *appeared on RNZ National's Sunday morning major headline as the conveyor, the purveyor of 'bad' - as in highly unwelcome - news: that abortion principally hurts those it's most championed as helping/defending: i.e. women themselves!
Later the same (and/or sometime the following) day it was mentioned that she, alongside a number of others - women in particular, or so I understand - had published a full-page advertisement in New Zealand newspapers (that particular weekend) declaring this selfsame, rather unsettling fact; one moreover so seldom heard or discussed in the on-again, off-again, on-again publicly-aired debate upon the matter. And so for once the state-run kiwi broadcast media has given due credence to the less popular side of a controversial as issue...and for that fact alone they deserve full credit.
This is all for now, but for those still interested in hearing a different - if equally unpopular - take on the subject, I can only invite them to tune in to my other (original) blogsite...and read therein the November 5th blogpost - 'Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) is Right On: ABORTION is indeed the 'Moral Equivalent' of 'Contract Killing'... - look up 'Nuff Said' etc...
*All morning that (Sun)day...three/four/five/six weeks back - the very first item on each hour's head-line news bulletin was that one...mentioning Barbara Hill as having expressed deep/est concern regarding the long/er-range effects upon those women who had at one time or other - not to mention upon multiple occasions - undergone abortions. And that this salient fact needed to be taken into consideration by the parliamentary select committee tasked with reviewing abortion law...once said item reaches/hits the Government's House business agenda (in the not too distant).
Later the same (and/or sometime the following) day it was mentioned that she, alongside a number of others - women in particular, or so I understand - had published a full-page advertisement in New Zealand newspapers (that particular weekend) declaring this selfsame, rather unsettling fact; one moreover so seldom heard or discussed in the on-again, off-again, on-again publicly-aired debate upon the matter. And so for once the state-run kiwi broadcast media has given due credence to the less popular side of a controversial as issue...and for that fact alone they deserve full credit.
This is all for now, but for those still interested in hearing a different - if equally unpopular - take on the subject, I can only invite them to tune in to my other (original) blogsite...and read therein the November 5th blogpost - 'Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) is Right On: ABORTION is indeed the 'Moral Equivalent' of 'Contract Killing'... - look up 'Nuff Said' etc...
*All morning that (Sun)day...three/four/five/six weeks back - the very first item on each hour's head-line news bulletin was that one...mentioning Barbara Hill as having expressed deep/est concern regarding the long/er-range effects upon those women who had at one time or other - not to mention upon multiple occasions - undergone abortions. And that this salient fact needed to be taken into consideration by the parliamentary select committee tasked with reviewing abortion law...once said item reaches/hits the Government's House business agenda (in the not too distant).
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Simply Playing Politics - Or Impelled by one's 'better angels'? The Long-Anticipated Resignation/Dismissal of United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions
What will it profit a (wo)man to gain the whole world and lose [one's] own soul? Or what can a (wo)man give in exchange for [one's] soul?
So memorably said the Master those many moons ago. And guess what? The truth don't change, folks. It's the same 'yesterday, today and forever'.
Erstwhile US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions (I believe I blogposted about in some detail some considerable time ago) has now admittedly *'long since' received his marching orders from his own erstwhile 'Commander-in-Chief'...and thus and so, following hard upon the heels of the American midterm elections, was asked to submit/tender his resignation from the post...and forthwith got given an early (if much- and long-expected) 'Christmas present'/Thanksgiving Gift: only he himself was the sacrificial victim.
Sessions, despite his well-canvassed and problematic, racist - though non-KKK - past (far as I'm aware; and no, I'm not splitting straws - there's a helluva difference), is of the honourable old school. Yes, perhaps a tad naive - in offering/tendering his resignation (like a lamb to the slaughter) - and then, rather than being reinstated (which he could hardly have realistically expected, surely), being summarily dismissed, sacked, given the sack, by his Boss-in-Chief.
Yes, the dear fellow committed the cardinal political sin of not reading the tea-leaves...but I'd argue that makes him more of a decent and honourable fellow (as a direct correlation); he perhaps 'expected the best' (and hence a more favourable outcome), in the best tradition of those who ever and always - yes, often gullibly - expect the best of others...who themselves often have no such qualms and scruples.
As so many have argued - of those, moreover, who have long backed Trump taking this measure - after saying he'd recuse himself in the Mueller (sp?) investigation, Sessions oughta have tendered his resignation forthwith...sensing he was serving an extremely obtuse and irascible character...who would only ever be satisfied with 100%, obsequious, butt-licking compliance/acquiescence...on all fronts.
Though I've much more to say (already penned) upon this matter, let me conclude for the time being by citing some typical but I would argue sadly misguided and misdirected commentary upon the subject. To wit, those of well-known and longtime CBN Host, **the 700 Club's one-time (1988) wannabe Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson, who remarked that...the effective role JS was supposed to play/script and narrative he was meant to follow...was (as follows):
He [i.e. Jeff Sessions] was the one meant to do the blocking and the tackling for his/the team (i.e. to defend his leader/'captain' (and thus also team) from their opponents)...he just didn't do it...he recused himself over some very minor (incident)...
Really? No, that's a wholly partisan take on affairs. An attorney-general (at least of a long-established Westminster-type democracy based upon the good traditions of British common law and the Magna Carta etc) is meant - is solemn-bound, in fact - to defend and uphold his nation's constitution...and an American Constitution upholder like PR ought to know that more than anyone.
*And as so often, it's taken me considerable time to post this, though I wrote it out in freehand pretty well the very day the long-expected announcement was confirmed and declared. Procrastination is a terrible taskmaster whenever we let it tyrannize us...as an unfriendly imp bedevilling our footsteps.
**As shown on the weeknightly Shine TV channel (the very day following this pronouncement).
So memorably said the Master those many moons ago. And guess what? The truth don't change, folks. It's the same 'yesterday, today and forever'.
Erstwhile US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions (I believe I blogposted about in some detail some considerable time ago) has now admittedly *'long since' received his marching orders from his own erstwhile 'Commander-in-Chief'...and thus and so, following hard upon the heels of the American midterm elections, was asked to submit/tender his resignation from the post...and forthwith got given an early (if much- and long-expected) 'Christmas present'/Thanksgiving Gift: only he himself was the sacrificial victim.
Sessions, despite his well-canvassed and problematic, racist - though non-KKK - past (far as I'm aware; and no, I'm not splitting straws - there's a helluva difference), is of the honourable old school. Yes, perhaps a tad naive - in offering/tendering his resignation (like a lamb to the slaughter) - and then, rather than being reinstated (which he could hardly have realistically expected, surely), being summarily dismissed, sacked, given the sack, by his Boss-in-Chief.
Yes, the dear fellow committed the cardinal political sin of not reading the tea-leaves...but I'd argue that makes him more of a decent and honourable fellow (as a direct correlation); he perhaps 'expected the best' (and hence a more favourable outcome), in the best tradition of those who ever and always - yes, often gullibly - expect the best of others...who themselves often have no such qualms and scruples.
As so many have argued - of those, moreover, who have long backed Trump taking this measure - after saying he'd recuse himself in the Mueller (sp?) investigation, Sessions oughta have tendered his resignation forthwith...sensing he was serving an extremely obtuse and irascible character...who would only ever be satisfied with 100%, obsequious, butt-licking compliance/acquiescence...on all fronts.
Though I've much more to say (already penned) upon this matter, let me conclude for the time being by citing some typical but I would argue sadly misguided and misdirected commentary upon the subject. To wit, those of well-known and longtime CBN Host, **the 700 Club's one-time (1988) wannabe Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson, who remarked that...the effective role JS was supposed to play/script and narrative he was meant to follow...was (as follows):
He [i.e. Jeff Sessions] was the one meant to do the blocking and the tackling for his/the team (i.e. to defend his leader/'captain' (and thus also team) from their opponents)...he just didn't do it...he recused himself over some very minor (incident)...
Really? No, that's a wholly partisan take on affairs. An attorney-general (at least of a long-established Westminster-type democracy based upon the good traditions of British common law and the Magna Carta etc) is meant - is solemn-bound, in fact - to defend and uphold his nation's constitution...and an American Constitution upholder like PR ought to know that more than anyone.
*And as so often, it's taken me considerable time to post this, though I wrote it out in freehand pretty well the very day the long-expected announcement was confirmed and declared. Procrastination is a terrible taskmaster whenever we let it tyrannize us...as an unfriendly imp bedevilling our footsteps.
**As shown on the weeknightly Shine TV channel (the very day following this pronouncement).
Confession of a Political Junkie...Torn Betwixt Many and Various Conflicting Perspectives...On a Fairly Ongoing Basis...
A brief afterthought vis-a-vis the American midterm elections...
Though (for quite awhile previous, especially as the Brett Kavanaugh saga burst into full flight) I'd been hoping the Republicans in general would give the Democrats a right proper serve or several...upon the actual day itself I found myself rooting for the Democratic Party...at least/especially in the (540-odd) congressional seats at play...if not necessarily in (all the 33/34) various Senate races...
So we're all tribal when it comes to our politics, however much we kid ourselves or even oftentimes really think otherwise...and so we cheer on the hometown team, whom we at heart support, however flawed...
Though (for quite awhile previous, especially as the Brett Kavanaugh saga burst into full flight) I'd been hoping the Republicans in general would give the Democrats a right proper serve or several...upon the actual day itself I found myself rooting for the Democratic Party...at least/especially in the (540-odd) congressional seats at play...if not necessarily in (all the 33/34) various Senate races...
So we're all tribal when it comes to our politics, however much we kid ourselves or even oftentimes really think otherwise...and so we cheer on the hometown team, whom we at heart support, however flawed...
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Far Better to be Thought a Fool and Keep one's Mouth Closed...Than to Open one's Gob and Remove all Doubt: But 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'...
No guessin' who *'one' might be referring to here, is there...? No indeed. (Though I'll freely concede Yours Truly has had his own share of 'foot-in-mouth disease' over the years... .) But where does one even begin vis-a-vis the '**greatest president of all time'?!?!?
So the media have now become "the enemy of the people"? Hey, correct me if I'm off-base somewhere, but didn't a former American president ...who as we all well know, was ultimately impeached...use precisely those very words? Just askin'...
But far more serious, and even ***unforgivable (as so many would reasonably suggest)...is having a go at people (i.e. in Paradise, California) undergoing 'God-awful' tragedies, or nations (France) at the very time of the centennial commemorations of the ghastly 'war to end all wars'. Such is not merely without precedent (by a political leader, let alone one 'leading' the world's most powerful nation) it really is quite beyond normal vocabulary (to effectively and appropriately describe)...
But no, Macron - though appearing to possess the sort of real substance, gravitas and statesmanship past leaders of 'the Republic' have had (despite in my view really only being a media showpony) - is completely wrong to suggest the politician in question ought to be able to reveal the type of "common decency people expect" on such occasions...
...for as the beautiful Abigail said of her husband ****Nabal in the long-ago: "...this scoundrel Nabal...as his name is, so is he: Nabal[Fool] is his name, and folly is with him!"
Or as other biblical writers have expressed things at other times and on differing occasions, one prophet asks: "Can a leopard change its spots (or an Ethiopian the colour of his skin)? Then can you who are accustomed to do evil do good... ."
But in this particular instance the particular individual concerned simply cannot bring blood out of a stone. Or as Jesus put things: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks...an evil man out of the evil treasure of [of his heart] brings forth evil things." For s/he simply cannot do otherwise (whether American President or not).
*As the dear royals love to phrase things (i.e. by freely utilizing that royal 'one')...
**Admitting that 'the Donald' at least has had the modesty to say he's not superior to one Abe Lincoln...
***Though as a Bible-believing Christian and Christ-follower, only 'the sin against the Holy Spirit' is ultimately unable to be forgiven...throughout eternal ages 'to kingdom come'... . Which this lay theologian, at least, takes as being the never-ending hardening of a person's heart (alongside willing closing of that person's mind) to the winsome, winning voice of God through Himself, ie. His Holy Spirit, convicting that person of the reality of sin, righteousness and judgment to come: that sin is real in everyone's experience, that God's very own righteousness through his Son Jesus Christ is alone able to justify us in the sight of God, and that refusing that precious free gift of righteousness (with God's abundance of grace) will lead inevitably to judgment and condemnation for all rejecters thereof...
For God's Only Son Himself experienced the full wages of sin for every man and woman who has ever lived...and so if we fail to realize the awful, God-forsaken death He once for all died on behalf of each of us...and accordingly do not appropriate the merits thereof for our own selves...we will ultimately be left to bear all the shame of our sin ourselves...and the wages of that sin is indeed death...for time and eternity...for the soul that sinneth, it will surely die - forever, and not live on in endless eternal agony as some have so erroneously taught down through the ages...
****Interestingly, preceded some few hundred years earlier by someone with the reverse letters in his Christian name, the patriarch Jacob's employer and father-in-law Laban, himself a fool of a slightly different variety...
So the media have now become "the enemy of the people"? Hey, correct me if I'm off-base somewhere, but didn't a former American president ...who as we all well know, was ultimately impeached...use precisely those very words? Just askin'...
But far more serious, and even ***unforgivable (as so many would reasonably suggest)...is having a go at people (i.e. in Paradise, California) undergoing 'God-awful' tragedies, or nations (France) at the very time of the centennial commemorations of the ghastly 'war to end all wars'. Such is not merely without precedent (by a political leader, let alone one 'leading' the world's most powerful nation) it really is quite beyond normal vocabulary (to effectively and appropriately describe)...
But no, Macron - though appearing to possess the sort of real substance, gravitas and statesmanship past leaders of 'the Republic' have had (despite in my view really only being a media showpony) - is completely wrong to suggest the politician in question ought to be able to reveal the type of "common decency people expect" on such occasions...
...for as the beautiful Abigail said of her husband ****Nabal in the long-ago: "...this scoundrel Nabal...as his name is, so is he: Nabal[Fool] is his name, and folly is with him!"
Or as other biblical writers have expressed things at other times and on differing occasions, one prophet asks: "Can a leopard change its spots (or an Ethiopian the colour of his skin)? Then can you who are accustomed to do evil do good... ."
But in this particular instance the particular individual concerned simply cannot bring blood out of a stone. Or as Jesus put things: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks...an evil man out of the evil treasure of [of his heart] brings forth evil things." For s/he simply cannot do otherwise (whether American President or not).
*As the dear royals love to phrase things (i.e. by freely utilizing that royal 'one')...
**Admitting that 'the Donald' at least has had the modesty to say he's not superior to one Abe Lincoln...
***Though as a Bible-believing Christian and Christ-follower, only 'the sin against the Holy Spirit' is ultimately unable to be forgiven...throughout eternal ages 'to kingdom come'... . Which this lay theologian, at least, takes as being the never-ending hardening of a person's heart (alongside willing closing of that person's mind) to the winsome, winning voice of God through Himself, ie. His Holy Spirit, convicting that person of the reality of sin, righteousness and judgment to come: that sin is real in everyone's experience, that God's very own righteousness through his Son Jesus Christ is alone able to justify us in the sight of God, and that refusing that precious free gift of righteousness (with God's abundance of grace) will lead inevitably to judgment and condemnation for all rejecters thereof...
For God's Only Son Himself experienced the full wages of sin for every man and woman who has ever lived...and so if we fail to realize the awful, God-forsaken death He once for all died on behalf of each of us...and accordingly do not appropriate the merits thereof for our own selves...we will ultimately be left to bear all the shame of our sin ourselves...and the wages of that sin is indeed death...for time and eternity...for the soul that sinneth, it will surely die - forever, and not live on in endless eternal agony as some have so erroneously taught down through the ages...
****Interestingly, preceded some few hundred years earlier by someone with the reverse letters in his Christian name, the patriarch Jacob's employer and father-in-law Laban, himself a fool of a slightly different variety...
Friday, November 16, 2018
A Brexit's a Brexit No Matter How Botched? Sometimes others' thoughts - however strictly irrelevant to the subject at hand when first penned - really say it all
'By the [relevant] lights, it was a generous and radical proposal...
But I think that I had subconsciously stipulated that [the relevant party] needed to forget the usual considerations of prudent caution and simply agree, just once, to what I wanted...
When I finally quit...no one seemed surprised...
Looking back, it seems that I was seeking a[n]...excellence to which [the relevant party] is no longer sure she aspires...
My feeble attempts to recall her to her duty - as I saw it - betrayed a fathomless disappointment at the collapse of a cherished ideal...
Perhaps it was a vainglorious and impossible dream - certainly one mocked too often by reality...
This is not a story which reflects much credit on its protagonists. On my part, it is a tale of impatience and a rather hubristic yearning for something bolder and braver...
I never entirely lost faith in [the relevant party]...It is because I desire her mission be more successful that I want her to face the truth...
...if [such and such] is simply the best that...can [be] provide[d] at the moment let that be squarely faced so that something better may promptly take its place...
Though the author, the originator of these words would doubtless be shocked, maybe even horrified, to find his original words - as I said at the outset, bearing no explicit, implicit or other conceivable reference or allusion to the matter of the British Brexit - could be used/employed or construed in such a manner to *describe all too graphically this ever-contentious subject...nevertheless their striking pertinence to that all-consuming topic strikes me as utterly dumbfounding and astonishing...and hence, having rather, even entirely inadvertently stumbled upon them early this morning, I simply repeat them here for your due perusal, consideration, examination and evaluation...
'Nuff said...for now.
*That is, to the matter itself and/or various of the major players and protagonists involved...
**From a 31-some year back ***column - Why I Left The Priesthood - by a one-time politically significant persona here in the Antipodes. ***In the August 18, 1987 edition of 'The Bulletin' (to be precise, and to give due credit where credit is due).
But I think that I had subconsciously stipulated that [the relevant party] needed to forget the usual considerations of prudent caution and simply agree, just once, to what I wanted...
When I finally quit...no one seemed surprised...
Looking back, it seems that I was seeking a[n]...excellence to which [the relevant party] is no longer sure she aspires...
My feeble attempts to recall her to her duty - as I saw it - betrayed a fathomless disappointment at the collapse of a cherished ideal...
Perhaps it was a vainglorious and impossible dream - certainly one mocked too often by reality...
This is not a story which reflects much credit on its protagonists. On my part, it is a tale of impatience and a rather hubristic yearning for something bolder and braver...
I never entirely lost faith in [the relevant party]...It is because I desire her mission be more successful that I want her to face the truth...
...if [such and such] is simply the best that...can [be] provide[d] at the moment let that be squarely faced so that something better may promptly take its place...
Though the author, the originator of these words would doubtless be shocked, maybe even horrified, to find his original words - as I said at the outset, bearing no explicit, implicit or other conceivable reference or allusion to the matter of the British Brexit - could be used/employed or construed in such a manner to *describe all too graphically this ever-contentious subject...nevertheless their striking pertinence to that all-consuming topic strikes me as utterly dumbfounding and astonishing...and hence, having rather, even entirely inadvertently stumbled upon them early this morning, I simply repeat them here for your due perusal, consideration, examination and evaluation...
'Nuff said...for now.
*That is, to the matter itself and/or various of the major players and protagonists involved...
**From a 31-some year back ***column - Why I Left The Priesthood - by a one-time politically significant persona here in the Antipodes. ***In the August 18, 1987 edition of 'The Bulletin' (to be precise, and to give due credit where credit is due).
A Great 'Ole Journalistic Trooper Bites the Dust: The Likes of Brian Priestley Definitely Won't Pass this/our way again...
Let my words about this wordsmith be brief and to the point. As someone who occasionally viewed this *'curmudgeonly but prescient' thinker/commentator (in various TV media contexts) in decades long past, he was worth his (gold bullion) weight in (newspaper) column inches and rows and pages...
Bemoaning the *"lack of intelligent discussion" he feared and fully expected as future technology started to claw its way into Westerners' and others' lives in the mid-to-late-eighties, he likewise realized that *"someone somewhere is looking for an intelligent view of things...
look for it!"
A (in this case, exceedingly wise) cynic...he remained at heart an optimist...ever hoping for better things...
*Credit for the above quotations - gleaned from some scholarly work of Mr Priestley - to those on the Thursday, November 15th 'edition' of the (generally Jim Mora-led) RNZ National Pre-Panel...who moreover informed me that he'd died just the previous week...at the great old age of 92. (Odd that this media junkie heard nary a reference to that fact...till said Panel, that is... .)
Bemoaning the *"lack of intelligent discussion" he feared and fully expected as future technology started to claw its way into Westerners' and others' lives in the mid-to-late-eighties, he likewise realized that *"someone somewhere is looking for an intelligent view of things...
look for it!"
A (in this case, exceedingly wise) cynic...he remained at heart an optimist...ever hoping for better things...
*Credit for the above quotations - gleaned from some scholarly work of Mr Priestley - to those on the Thursday, November 15th 'edition' of the (generally Jim Mora-led) RNZ National Pre-Panel...who moreover informed me that he'd died just the previous week...at the great old age of 92. (Odd that this media junkie heard nary a reference to that fact...till said Panel, that is... .)
A Belated Pike River Re-Entry? Better late than never, folks, I suppose...
So is it simply Government(al) grandstanding - as readily suggested by *many another glib talkback host? Yes, spending the present (New Zealand) Government largesse as if it's going out of fashion - e.g. throwing $36 odd million at this, and **$2-3 billion on that - isn't tantamount to real wisdom, is it...
All the foregoing is correct as - 'for sure' (as an 'ole Aussie buddy might have put it) - but guess what, folks? It's an old-fashioned concept, I well realize, but keeping your political word, sticking to your election promises and pledges and commitments...is the sort of tradition-keeping - 'old-school politics' as it were - that most of us, I'd respectfully suggest (to many and another talkback hosts in particular), would readily welcome a return to...however generally forlorn such a prospect might well be 'in the real world', more's the pity...
*But anyone who knows me - and talkback hosts/programmes - knows there's talkback hosts and talkback hosts...i.e. they differ one from another as ye proverbial chalk and cheese... So to 'blanketly' dismiss any and all such is akin to saying, as so many once (anyhow) did: "I don't watch TV...it's all [rubbish] etc." (Which to my mind, anyhow, is the mark of a superficial sort of person. For technology is most assuredly good or bad entirely depending upon the use or abuse made of it. And there are surely usages falling into either of the above two broad-brush categories... .)
**And yes, the election pledge ***follow-through of splurging without due sense upon a first free year at varsity (and other tertiary institutions) is just such a dumb thing, folks...and the Government, were it really on its toes, would readily 'fess up to a ***rash and extremely unwise promise, and ***speedily resile from it...ipso pronto...
***Yes, I'm - well - aware I've just managed to completely contradict myself...but life is complex, isn't it... . Yes, some promises need to be kept - as the psalmist commended the one 'who swears to his own hurt and does not change'. But most would tend to agree that a good and effective government doesn't have that 'luxury', needing to carefully account for each and every dollar of taxpayers' monies.
All the foregoing is correct as - 'for sure' (as an 'ole Aussie buddy might have put it) - but guess what, folks? It's an old-fashioned concept, I well realize, but keeping your political word, sticking to your election promises and pledges and commitments...is the sort of tradition-keeping - 'old-school politics' as it were - that most of us, I'd respectfully suggest (to many and another talkback hosts in particular), would readily welcome a return to...however generally forlorn such a prospect might well be 'in the real world', more's the pity...
*But anyone who knows me - and talkback hosts/programmes - knows there's talkback hosts and talkback hosts...i.e. they differ one from another as ye proverbial chalk and cheese... So to 'blanketly' dismiss any and all such is akin to saying, as so many once (anyhow) did: "I don't watch TV...it's all [rubbish] etc." (Which to my mind, anyhow, is the mark of a superficial sort of person. For technology is most assuredly good or bad entirely depending upon the use or abuse made of it. And there are surely usages falling into either of the above two broad-brush categories... .)
**And yes, the election pledge ***follow-through of splurging without due sense upon a first free year at varsity (and other tertiary institutions) is just such a dumb thing, folks...and the Government, were it really on its toes, would readily 'fess up to a ***rash and extremely unwise promise, and ***speedily resile from it...ipso pronto...
***Yes, I'm - well - aware I've just managed to completely contradict myself...but life is complex, isn't it... . Yes, some promises need to be kept - as the psalmist commended the one 'who swears to his own hurt and does not change'. But most would tend to agree that a good and effective government doesn't have that 'luxury', needing to carefully account for each and every dollar of taxpayers' monies.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Stan the man Lee has died: "Au Revoir" to Marveldom's creator-in-chief...
Marvel's editor, creator and *co-creator of such great comic titles as...
The Avengers...Daredevil...Ironman...The Defenders...Doctor Strange...Thor...Captain America.
As well as...Spiderman...Fantastic Four...The Incredible Hulk...Silver Surfer...
These were the titles **we especially traded in. exchanged and ordered from distant shores...c/o Montreal, Canadian Robert Crestohl (sp?) in particular...but others that we sporadically purchased included Conan the Barbarian...Marvel-Two-in-One...Marvel Tales...The ManThing...Tales of Suspense...Ghost-Rider...X-Men...
*Apparently an issue in later years as lawsuits were filed and contested over various creative copyright issues (if my understanding is correct).
**I.e myself and a sibling of mine...whose titles were the latter (four), mine the former (seven).
The Avengers...Daredevil...Ironman...The Defenders...Doctor Strange...Thor...Captain America.
As well as...Spiderman...Fantastic Four...The Incredible Hulk...Silver Surfer...
These were the titles **we especially traded in. exchanged and ordered from distant shores...c/o Montreal, Canadian Robert Crestohl (sp?) in particular...but others that we sporadically purchased included Conan the Barbarian...Marvel-Two-in-One...Marvel Tales...The ManThing...Tales of Suspense...Ghost-Rider...X-Men...
*Apparently an issue in later years as lawsuits were filed and contested over various creative copyright issues (if my understanding is correct).
**I.e myself and a sibling of mine...whose titles were the latter (four), mine the former (seven).
Monday, November 12, 2018
Hey, They've Reconsidered, Reassessed, and Relented: Government Makes Welcome Backdown On Scope of Institutional Abuse Inquiry: So Let's Give 'Em A Bouquet Not a Brickbat...or so I initially thought!
Yes, it's always best - with the benefit of hindsight - to get things right the first time around...yet as we all - ought to - know, that's not always the way things turn out 'in the real world'. No indeed. And so I reckon it's indeed 'better (to be) late than never' (about most things), rather than incessantly criticize folk, including governments, because they - for whatever reason (legitimate or otherwise) - seem to do things wrong 'from the get go' (as some like to put it).
Yes, speaking as someone who wrote a staunch (or several) blogpost/s quite awhile ago on this very matter, and moreover urging/pleading for just such a re-focus, I'm glad they're - however belatedly - now doing so...though I'm hardly conceited enough to - remotely- suppose it could have anything at all to do with my own 'agitations' thereupon. In all realism they've doubtless neither heard of *my blogsite nor would have a whole lot of use for it if they did (on a whole host of scores and levels!)
So 'good on the Government' for relenting, for reconsidering the scope, the ambit of their developing inquiry into institutional sexual et al abuse (of kids in care), now of course including children who were in the care of private - such as church-run - institutions as well as those solely in state care. As somebody involved with Oranga Tamariki (on RNZ National's 5 p.m. Checkpoint Programme with Lisa Owen this eve) aptly summed it up: "Do it once and do it right."
Yes, however long it takes...whether one year or four years... . As Jacinda Ardern might put it:"Let's do it, folks!"
*Though I did also 'make (impassioned) representations' about the equally sorry (and to my way of thinking, quite shameful) jettisoning of what was the **Stand Children's Roxburgh Service (for traumatized, ***PTSD kids) around the same time...and, moreover, emailed a copy thereof to the two relevant ministers involved (in said decision).
**Or whatever it's fandangled ****nomenclature actually was!
***Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
****Just trying to be smart myself, 'nomenclature' of course refers to names, more precisely 'a system of names: terminology: a list of names: mode of naming' (according to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).
All-too-necessary Postscript:
As per usual (or rather lately, it would seem), I've spoken way too soon. Apparently, at least according to certain interested groups and individuals, many folk subjected to abuse (who fall between the cracks as it were, neither fitting perfectly into state-run outfits and/or faith-based ones), look likely/set to continue to be ignored (by said enquiry).
Moreover - and perhaps even more significantly - vis-a-vis the Government's proposed changes to its commission of inquiry into historic sexual (and other institutional) abuse, it's only, note well, only, been extended to include abuse alleged at faith-based institutions (in addition to that alleged in state-run institutions). As Minister of Children (personally overseeing said commission, alongside Prime Minister Ardern) Tracey Martin herself freely conceded the other night, other groups will not be considered.
But surely religious-based abuse and state-based abuse do not constitute all abuse that's occurred? Of course not, not by a very long stretch of the imagination...or even faculties of everyday reason...
They're sporting outfits as well, just for starters...(though it's presently escaped my recollection the list of other assorted groups mentioned by questioning media at the special news conference the other day, institutions that not only could've, but arguably should've been included in the commission's ambit or remit).
For Minister Martin to effectively shrug that huge discrepancy off rather all too conveniently into the too hard basket as if it would all have been simply too difficult by half is frankly not good enough. For said inquiry is supposed to be extensive and comprehensive, and omitting any significant class of sufferers simply downplays and sidelines and otherwise devalues those people and their life-altering experiences of trauma. Indeed it raises more questions than it attempts to answer... .
For if a certain type of individual - i.e. an inmate/ward of the state and/or a religious institution - is more important and significant in terms of the duty of care of the state towards them, then what are we really saying (to them and to our community-at-large)? I mean, really?
No-no, folks, as I said earlier - quoting someone involved in selfsame discussion - we need to 'do it once and do it right'! Nuff said!
Yes, speaking as someone who wrote a staunch (or several) blogpost/s quite awhile ago on this very matter, and moreover urging/pleading for just such a re-focus, I'm glad they're - however belatedly - now doing so...though I'm hardly conceited enough to - remotely- suppose it could have anything at all to do with my own 'agitations' thereupon. In all realism they've doubtless neither heard of *my blogsite nor would have a whole lot of use for it if they did (on a whole host of scores and levels!)
So 'good on the Government' for relenting, for reconsidering the scope, the ambit of their developing inquiry into institutional sexual et al abuse (of kids in care), now of course including children who were in the care of private - such as church-run - institutions as well as those solely in state care. As somebody involved with Oranga Tamariki (on RNZ National's 5 p.m. Checkpoint Programme with Lisa Owen this eve) aptly summed it up: "Do it once and do it right."
Yes, however long it takes...whether one year or four years... . As Jacinda Ardern might put it:"Let's do it, folks!"
*Though I did also 'make (impassioned) representations' about the equally sorry (and to my way of thinking, quite shameful) jettisoning of what was the **Stand Children's Roxburgh Service (for traumatized, ***PTSD kids) around the same time...and, moreover, emailed a copy thereof to the two relevant ministers involved (in said decision).
**Or whatever it's fandangled ****nomenclature actually was!
***Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
****Just trying to be smart myself, 'nomenclature' of course refers to names, more precisely 'a system of names: terminology: a list of names: mode of naming' (according to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).
All-too-necessary Postscript:
As per usual (or rather lately, it would seem), I've spoken way too soon. Apparently, at least according to certain interested groups and individuals, many folk subjected to abuse (who fall between the cracks as it were, neither fitting perfectly into state-run outfits and/or faith-based ones), look likely/set to continue to be ignored (by said enquiry).
Moreover - and perhaps even more significantly - vis-a-vis the Government's proposed changes to its commission of inquiry into historic sexual (and other institutional) abuse, it's only, note well, only, been extended to include abuse alleged at faith-based institutions (in addition to that alleged in state-run institutions). As Minister of Children (personally overseeing said commission, alongside Prime Minister Ardern) Tracey Martin herself freely conceded the other night, other groups will not be considered.
But surely religious-based abuse and state-based abuse do not constitute all abuse that's occurred? Of course not, not by a very long stretch of the imagination...or even faculties of everyday reason...
They're sporting outfits as well, just for starters...(though it's presently escaped my recollection the list of other assorted groups mentioned by questioning media at the special news conference the other day, institutions that not only could've, but arguably should've been included in the commission's ambit or remit).
For Minister Martin to effectively shrug that huge discrepancy off rather all too conveniently into the too hard basket as if it would all have been simply too difficult by half is frankly not good enough. For said inquiry is supposed to be extensive and comprehensive, and omitting any significant class of sufferers simply downplays and sidelines and otherwise devalues those people and their life-altering experiences of trauma. Indeed it raises more questions than it attempts to answer... .
For if a certain type of individual - i.e. an inmate/ward of the state and/or a religious institution - is more important and significant in terms of the duty of care of the state towards them, then what are we really saying (to them and to our community-at-large)? I mean, really?
No-no, folks, as I said earlier - quoting someone involved in selfsame discussion - we need to 'do it once and do it right'! Nuff said!
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Better to Have Quit While You Were Ahead: The Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity that Germany's soon-to-depart leader has let slip through her hands
Yes, the position much-coveted by New Zealand's former Prime Minister, Helen Clark - the Secretaryship of the United Nations - could've, I contend would've - easily fallen into the grasp of Angela Merkel awhile ago had she then seen and seized her opportunity (while she had it).
Ms Clark didn't lose the contest because she was a woman, or even because she didn't happen to hail from one of the former Eastern Bloc nations, though it was mentioned early on that that was an important consideration for whoever was ultimately s/elected. Yet despite that, as we soon enough heard, the former Portuguese PM was appointed; or another 'pale, stale and male' individual, as some folk these days might uncharitably characterize him...
Nevertheless, someone hailing from a *one-time Eastern European nation, of the female gender, and a (relatively) long-serving, **popular and well-respected - nationally, European-wide and globally - leader of Angela Merkel's ilk would've won hands down; it wouldn't even have been a real contest, I reckon... .
As someone once famously said, taking a river (or suchlike) at full, flood-tide, will inevitably sweep one on to victory...whereas that moment, unrecognized and unrealized, will vanish, never to return.
Speaking as one well familiar with such (personal) stuff ups, you understand!
*For those unaware - as I long was - Chancellor Merkel grew up in what was then Eastern Germany.
**Though she certainly covers all these (three) bases, I'm not suggesting my own support for her (or her policies, especially her (Government's) million-person refugee resettlement program, which has landed her in so much political hot water, and even led to her premature exiting the political scene); I'm simply noting that Ms Merkel personally has garnered much acclaim both at home and abroad.
Ms Clark didn't lose the contest because she was a woman, or even because she didn't happen to hail from one of the former Eastern Bloc nations, though it was mentioned early on that that was an important consideration for whoever was ultimately s/elected. Yet despite that, as we soon enough heard, the former Portuguese PM was appointed; or another 'pale, stale and male' individual, as some folk these days might uncharitably characterize him...
Nevertheless, someone hailing from a *one-time Eastern European nation, of the female gender, and a (relatively) long-serving, **popular and well-respected - nationally, European-wide and globally - leader of Angela Merkel's ilk would've won hands down; it wouldn't even have been a real contest, I reckon... .
As someone once famously said, taking a river (or suchlike) at full, flood-tide, will inevitably sweep one on to victory...whereas that moment, unrecognized and unrealized, will vanish, never to return.
Speaking as one well familiar with such (personal) stuff ups, you understand!
*For those unaware - as I long was - Chancellor Merkel grew up in what was then Eastern Germany.
**Though she certainly covers all these (three) bases, I'm not suggesting my own support for her (or her policies, especially her (Government's) million-person refugee resettlement program, which has landed her in so much political hot water, and even led to her premature exiting the political scene); I'm simply noting that Ms Merkel personally has garnered much acclaim both at home and abroad.
Armistice Day...Today's Centennial 'Celebrations'
So what's to celebrate? Wasn't this supposedly 'the war to end all wars'? However, ever since, the war that has been dubbed 'a great big family argument' has seemingly but been the precursor to an endless succession of fiercer and bloodier and infinitely more gruesome wars, conducted, meanwhile, with a greater and greater degree of sophistication and military prowess...
Yep, that's 'progress' for you!
Yep, that's 'progress' for you!
This Guy Ain't No Typical, Time-serving Political Prat: Minister of Housing (and Transport) Phil Twyford
Much in the news these days, as the Labour-led Government's housing and transport reforms gather pace, is the hugely underrated Phil Twyford... . Bagged incessantly by 'the Hosk' et al (and media generally), and given short shrift by the Opposition (i.e. National Party), personally (as a frequent follower of 'the House' - and politics, NZ Inc., more generally) I beg to differ: hey, I like this guy!
Out of the (*parliamentary) blocks in a veritable canter, the man answers whatever questions are put to him in a forthright, straightforward manner, without all the usual obfuscation and b/s deflecting so many - on both aisles of the floor (of the House) - have perfected to a seeming art form. And, what's more, he does so with suitable gusto and passion - yes, as if he actually believes what he is saying!
No wilting lily, no shrinking violet, this one; no, anything but! As for the 'substance' of the man, i.e. his actual, feet-on-the-ground, follow through or performance as a minister, I'm not qualified to judge. However, from a layman's perspective, and despite all the endless ridiculing, demeaning and otherwise assorted 'pillorying' of the 'Honourable member' - including regularly-reiterated claims that the changes he's instituting are by and large meaningless re-bureaucratization - I again respectfully choose to differ.
Perhaps, as already alluded to, it's the style of the fellow I most enjoy/appreciate, but isn't it refreshing to see a politician not only knowledgeable about his portfolio but up to speed with all its nuances, subtleties and intricate complexities, who's, more's the point, willing to go in - all guns blazing - and actually effect some real change?; change that's relevant to the lives of the average Joe and Jane Bloggs out there 'in the real world', as politicians never forget reminding us about.
To get 'down and dirty' thereabouts, and to do something to make a substantial difference (in peoples' everyday lives). Something which his recently-progressing residential tenancies changes are sure to effect. All power to such politicians...who aren't just there to present us a pretty face.
*During the regular 'Question Time' at the start of each day's broadcast parliamentary proceedings.
Out of the (*parliamentary) blocks in a veritable canter, the man answers whatever questions are put to him in a forthright, straightforward manner, without all the usual obfuscation and b/s deflecting so many - on both aisles of the floor (of the House) - have perfected to a seeming art form. And, what's more, he does so with suitable gusto and passion - yes, as if he actually believes what he is saying!
No wilting lily, no shrinking violet, this one; no, anything but! As for the 'substance' of the man, i.e. his actual, feet-on-the-ground, follow through or performance as a minister, I'm not qualified to judge. However, from a layman's perspective, and despite all the endless ridiculing, demeaning and otherwise assorted 'pillorying' of the 'Honourable member' - including regularly-reiterated claims that the changes he's instituting are by and large meaningless re-bureaucratization - I again respectfully choose to differ.
Perhaps, as already alluded to, it's the style of the fellow I most enjoy/appreciate, but isn't it refreshing to see a politician not only knowledgeable about his portfolio but up to speed with all its nuances, subtleties and intricate complexities, who's, more's the point, willing to go in - all guns blazing - and actually effect some real change?; change that's relevant to the lives of the average Joe and Jane Bloggs out there 'in the real world', as politicians never forget reminding us about.
To get 'down and dirty' thereabouts, and to do something to make a substantial difference (in peoples' everyday lives). Something which his recently-progressing residential tenancies changes are sure to effect. All power to such politicians...who aren't just there to present us a pretty face.
*During the regular 'Question Time' at the start of each day's broadcast parliamentary proceedings.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Postscript Vis-a-vis Aasiya Noreen (Asia Bibi): Wishing her and all hers Angelic Protection and All Godspeed
Well, as events have moved on and the days have passed, we see how things're now transpiring in Pakistan...-and folks, it ain't a particularly pretty picture; but at least it's not judgment unmixed with mercy...thus far, anyhow...
But shame on Pakistan's new Prime Minister, one-time international cricket star/Pakistani captain Imran Khan...for responding to mob pressure (the three-some days of sitdown strikes and street protests throughout the land) and thus achieving an effective 'lose-lose' result for all concerned...
To (attempt to) compel Aasiya Noreen and family to remain in the country whilst an horrific death threat from/by ten million odd of her/their fellow citizenry hangs over her/their head/s like the fabled Sword of Damocles...is a very cruel thing indeed...
That P.M. Khan is not willing - doesn't have enough moral fibre in his bones...as would an Indira Gandhi (or a Golda Meir, *for that matter) - to stand up and 'call their bluff' (though sadly the vast majority are doubtless not kidding, but are deadly in earnest, or rather in deadly earnest or purpose), yes, even at the risk of his own life (yes, some things really do matter more than one's very life even), is a sad commentary on the present-day moral vacuum in positions of leadership worldwide ...and especially in staunchly Islamic lands (like Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Middle East ...just for starters...).
And no, I don't blame Aasiya's (ultimately successful) lawyer for fleeing the country...and I hope (BBC etc) reports (today) are true that she - and her family - have managed to now as well...-and good on that Government minister who's vowed to defend her and her people if they do remain in the land...though I'd suggest he too (and numerous others involved, such as the relevant judges) depart ipso pronto as well...for their very lives may well depend upon it...
*Yes, there were female leaders of a previous generation (or several), and they were ones - much like Margaret Thatcher (whatever one thought of her policies or personality) - who had a certain steel in their bones...and who knew the meaning of decisiveness and had true, deep convictions...**even if they almost cost them their lives...or, in Gandhi's case, did see her (and her son Rajiv, down the track) lose her life ultimately for that sterling character/those inimitable moral qualities...
**But arguably the roll call of history is ***almost endless when it comes to great people, especially political and religious leaders, prophets and true saints...cut down - usually in their very prime - by the assassin's pistol/bullet...for those lacking the force of good argument ever and always resort - in the final analysis - to a weapon that will thereafter forever seek to silence their fiercest and ablest critics/foes. But they forget or fail to realize that these moral giants 'being dead, yet speak'...
...into subsequent, succeeding generations, often for time and memorial...
***A 'Beginner's List/Roll of Honour would have to include Socrates...Indira Gandhi...Mahatma Gandhi...Martin Luther King...Malcolm X (as a transformed individual)...Robert Kennedy...'JFK'...
...and a historical roll-call of saints and martyrs and witnesses for Jesus innumerable...towering head and shoulders above all others being Jesus the Christ, the Co-Creator and Saviour of the World.
But shame on Pakistan's new Prime Minister, one-time international cricket star/Pakistani captain Imran Khan...for responding to mob pressure (the three-some days of sitdown strikes and street protests throughout the land) and thus achieving an effective 'lose-lose' result for all concerned...
To (attempt to) compel Aasiya Noreen and family to remain in the country whilst an horrific death threat from/by ten million odd of her/their fellow citizenry hangs over her/their head/s like the fabled Sword of Damocles...is a very cruel thing indeed...
That P.M. Khan is not willing - doesn't have enough moral fibre in his bones...as would an Indira Gandhi (or a Golda Meir, *for that matter) - to stand up and 'call their bluff' (though sadly the vast majority are doubtless not kidding, but are deadly in earnest, or rather in deadly earnest or purpose), yes, even at the risk of his own life (yes, some things really do matter more than one's very life even), is a sad commentary on the present-day moral vacuum in positions of leadership worldwide ...and especially in staunchly Islamic lands (like Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Middle East ...just for starters...).
And no, I don't blame Aasiya's (ultimately successful) lawyer for fleeing the country...and I hope (BBC etc) reports (today) are true that she - and her family - have managed to now as well...-and good on that Government minister who's vowed to defend her and her people if they do remain in the land...though I'd suggest he too (and numerous others involved, such as the relevant judges) depart ipso pronto as well...for their very lives may well depend upon it...
*Yes, there were female leaders of a previous generation (or several), and they were ones - much like Margaret Thatcher (whatever one thought of her policies or personality) - who had a certain steel in their bones...and who knew the meaning of decisiveness and had true, deep convictions...**even if they almost cost them their lives...or, in Gandhi's case, did see her (and her son Rajiv, down the track) lose her life ultimately for that sterling character/those inimitable moral qualities...
**But arguably the roll call of history is ***almost endless when it comes to great people, especially political and religious leaders, prophets and true saints...cut down - usually in their very prime - by the assassin's pistol/bullet...for those lacking the force of good argument ever and always resort - in the final analysis - to a weapon that will thereafter forever seek to silence their fiercest and ablest critics/foes. But they forget or fail to realize that these moral giants 'being dead, yet speak'...
...into subsequent, succeeding generations, often for time and memorial...
***A 'Beginner's List/Roll of Honour would have to include Socrates...Indira Gandhi...Mahatma Gandhi...Martin Luther King...Malcolm X (as a transformed individual)...Robert Kennedy...'JFK'...
...and a historical roll-call of saints and martyrs and witnesses for Jesus innumerable...towering head and shoulders above all others being Jesus the Christ, the Co-Creator and Saviour of the World.
It's About (i.e. long past) Time: Canadian Apology to WW11 Jewish Refugees at least Better Late than Never
And their fellow Western nations (such as New Zealand, and I *believe Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) should forthwith follow suit...and do the selfsame...ipso pronto!
*First 'discovered' a couple decades past at a Children's Holocaust Memorial (at what was then the Early Settlers Museum) in my hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand. I.e. at said exhibit (with numerous photographs of such children refused entry to our 'civilized' countries, I believe the kids' photos were) I learnt for the first time in my life that we Westerners were not as lily white in our own oft-celebrated response/approach to the Nazis and their dastardly deeds in Europe as has been so often assumed. No indeed!
And quite frankly, such a standing record of our refusal to permit the immigration of people subjected to such unimaginable (if now well-chronicled) horrors simply beggars belief...of any half-humane soul, anyhow...irrespective of the likelihood that at that time (throughout the nineteen-thirties, that is)
many if not the great, overwhelming majority of 'us' had little idea of just how dreadfully Jews throughout Europe were being treated...for our abject ignorance was absolutely no real excuse.
For 'we' could have known/found out just what was occurring...but chose instead to bury our heads in ye proverbial sand. Shame on us...and credit to the Canadians - for at least acknowledging 'we' did wrong. As Jesus Himself so aptly put matters, whatsoever [we] didn't do to one of the least of these, [we] did not do to [i.e. for] Him. That was/is the verdict of the Master Himself...and He made/ makes no mistakes...whatsoever!
*First 'discovered' a couple decades past at a Children's Holocaust Memorial (at what was then the Early Settlers Museum) in my hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand. I.e. at said exhibit (with numerous photographs of such children refused entry to our 'civilized' countries, I believe the kids' photos were) I learnt for the first time in my life that we Westerners were not as lily white in our own oft-celebrated response/approach to the Nazis and their dastardly deeds in Europe as has been so often assumed. No indeed!
And quite frankly, such a standing record of our refusal to permit the immigration of people subjected to such unimaginable (if now well-chronicled) horrors simply beggars belief...of any half-humane soul, anyhow...irrespective of the likelihood that at that time (throughout the nineteen-thirties, that is)
many if not the great, overwhelming majority of 'us' had little idea of just how dreadfully Jews throughout Europe were being treated...for our abject ignorance was absolutely no real excuse.
For 'we' could have known/found out just what was occurring...but chose instead to bury our heads in ye proverbial sand. Shame on us...and credit to the Canadians - for at least acknowledging 'we' did wrong. As Jesus Himself so aptly put matters, whatsoever [we] didn't do to one of the least of these, [we] did not do to [i.e. for] Him. That was/is the verdict of the Master Himself...and He made/ makes no mistakes...whatsoever!
Thursday, November 8, 2018
So Why Did the Midterm U S Elections Transpire Quite the Way they Ultimately Did?
Again, putting on my well-worn hat as an *amateur psephologist - i.e. one who is involved (in a scholarly fashion, naturally enough) in the **'sociological and statistical study of election results and trends' - let me give a logical follow-up to yesterdays' blogpost: that is, to my own assessment/ 'prognostications' vis-a-vis yesterday's results: i.e. that newly-energized (political) bases/ constituencies were likely to lead to sizeable victories - in traditional strongholds - for both sides (of America's essential two-party political divide).
The Democrats in Colorado "winning a clean sweep...outperforming their wildest imaginings", according to regular RNZ National Washington correspondent Simon Marks specifically fulfilled one small part of my predictions, as did the absolute trouncing (in the House of Representatives only, mind you!) that Trump (and his agenda) effectively received in returning-to-the-fold ***Pennsylvania, and especially Virginia. Even, surprisingly enough, Trumpian West Virginia was far from a cinch in the Republicans' fold. Although neighbouring Ohio seemed to buck that trend, reaffirming its longtime status as the bastion of traditional Americanism.
So why did things transpire quite like they did yesterday - bearing in mind the lines of waiting voters were so long 'out West' that vote counting was extended in various places (well past the usual, NZ time, voting 'cutoff')? Just a couple words/reasons/explanations, folks...
Trump...Trump...Trump - and threatened healthcare 'entitlements' (for the Democrat upsurge).
The Kavanaugh Effect...plus south-of-the-border illegal immigration (for the Republicans).
Essentially the U S Senate went the one way (in a strongly pro-Republican direction - in the circumstances), whereas the House of Representatives set strongly in the ******'opposite' direction.
And why should that be? I really need not spell it out, it should be glaringly obvious as to anyone who ain't been living in ye proverbial cave over recent days and weeks and months; i.e. the Senate alone considers/authorizes/ultimately approves Supreme Court judicial nominations...and so, let's just say, the idea of 'guilty till proven innocent' simply (and perfectly understandably) doesn't - and of course shouldn't - go down well with anyone brought up upon the fundamental, time-honoured tenet of being innocent till proven guilty...and hence the reaction that ultimately set in bigtime for those who - naturally - felt that this fundamental principle of Western law (based upon the British common law from the time of the Magna Carta on) was not being adhered to - indeed, was essentially being jettisoned in no uncertain terms - in the well-canvassed Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
And, on the other hand, people tend to like their new, Obama-era healthcare 'entitlements'. And, yes, there's that 'little matter' of the current occupant of the Oval Office...as if you hadn't heard...
*I did after all attain a minor in Political Studies/Science (in 2005), after returning as a mature student following a sixteen-year hiatus from varsity study; although my English major, I would argue, was as much if not even more political in its ideologically-constrained and saturated content. And having carefully followed American politics since my middle childhood (while Nixon, Watergate and Kissinger were household names), and eventually standing myself as an independent in 2008, I do reckon I've some basis of credibility for that about which I speak (and so readily pontificate!)
**Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).
***Obviously President Trump's belated and unfortunate visit (to provide solace et al after the recent Jewish synagogue massacre) almost immediately pre-election hardly helped matters one whit!
****Those four essential reasons (bar Trump and *****'the Kavanaugh Effect') could've been easily gleaned from follow-up polling data breakdowns (as so superbly displayed in the live ABC TV coverage), shown here (in NZ) upon Freeview's 'channel 13' (channel 10 at our place).
*****More on this to come (in a brief follow-up blogpost, itself majorly related to one I've been posting upon my other blogsite over recent days)...
******If one accepts the 'common wisdom' that the American Republican Party and their Democratic party counterparts are really all that ideologically opposed...in a real sense.
The Democrats in Colorado "winning a clean sweep...outperforming their wildest imaginings", according to regular RNZ National Washington correspondent Simon Marks specifically fulfilled one small part of my predictions, as did the absolute trouncing (in the House of Representatives only, mind you!) that Trump (and his agenda) effectively received in returning-to-the-fold ***Pennsylvania, and especially Virginia. Even, surprisingly enough, Trumpian West Virginia was far from a cinch in the Republicans' fold. Although neighbouring Ohio seemed to buck that trend, reaffirming its longtime status as the bastion of traditional Americanism.
So why did things transpire quite like they did yesterday - bearing in mind the lines of waiting voters were so long 'out West' that vote counting was extended in various places (well past the usual, NZ time, voting 'cutoff')? Just a couple words/reasons/explanations, folks...
Trump...Trump...Trump - and threatened healthcare 'entitlements' (for the Democrat upsurge).
The Kavanaugh Effect...plus south-of-the-border illegal immigration (for the Republicans).
Essentially the U S Senate went the one way (in a strongly pro-Republican direction - in the circumstances), whereas the House of Representatives set strongly in the ******'opposite' direction.
And why should that be? I really need not spell it out, it should be glaringly obvious as to anyone who ain't been living in ye proverbial cave over recent days and weeks and months; i.e. the Senate alone considers/authorizes/ultimately approves Supreme Court judicial nominations...and so, let's just say, the idea of 'guilty till proven innocent' simply (and perfectly understandably) doesn't - and of course shouldn't - go down well with anyone brought up upon the fundamental, time-honoured tenet of being innocent till proven guilty...and hence the reaction that ultimately set in bigtime for those who - naturally - felt that this fundamental principle of Western law (based upon the British common law from the time of the Magna Carta on) was not being adhered to - indeed, was essentially being jettisoned in no uncertain terms - in the well-canvassed Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
And, on the other hand, people tend to like their new, Obama-era healthcare 'entitlements'. And, yes, there's that 'little matter' of the current occupant of the Oval Office...as if you hadn't heard...
*I did after all attain a minor in Political Studies/Science (in 2005), after returning as a mature student following a sixteen-year hiatus from varsity study; although my English major, I would argue, was as much if not even more political in its ideologically-constrained and saturated content. And having carefully followed American politics since my middle childhood (while Nixon, Watergate and Kissinger were household names), and eventually standing myself as an independent in 2008, I do reckon I've some basis of credibility for that about which I speak (and so readily pontificate!)
**Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).
***Obviously President Trump's belated and unfortunate visit (to provide solace et al after the recent Jewish synagogue massacre) almost immediately pre-election hardly helped matters one whit!
****Those four essential reasons (bar Trump and *****'the Kavanaugh Effect') could've been easily gleaned from follow-up polling data breakdowns (as so superbly displayed in the live ABC TV coverage), shown here (in NZ) upon Freeview's 'channel 13' (channel 10 at our place).
*****More on this to come (in a brief follow-up blogpost, itself majorly related to one I've been posting upon my other blogsite over recent days)...
******If one accepts the 'common wisdom' that the American Republican Party and their Democratic party counterparts are really all that ideologically opposed...in a real sense.
A Republican 'Kemp' who's dragged that once highly-esteemed Republican Party name into and through the proverbial mud...and dug a deeply-laden trench therein
Just to elucidate very briefly upon a much-watched contest in the Deep South (Georgia), whose result now seems all but certain, yet has nevertheless been left up in the air by a candidate's refusal to concede on election night...
Though Stacey Abrams - on the surface, to all appearances - appears to bear all the hallmarks of what we've all come to know through our own fraught life-experiences as 'a sore loser', appearances as we all well know can at times be awfully deceiving. And, clearly, having bothered to say that, I'm strongly intimating that this is one of those times...
And most assuredly it is. For if there was EVER what has traditionally been known as a
'conflict of interest' in a candidacy, THIS IS IT...with spades. Reflecting, if on a far less significant scale, the now ever-infamous then Floridian Secretary of State Kathleen Harris from Florida's equally-infamous and all-determining 2000 presidential election contest/counting/result, Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp's effective meddling with the ballot - to wit the illegal, state-sanctioned striking off as invalid many thousands of potential votes...before they were even counted (through traditional southern disenfranchisement tactics of black American voters)...-
...means that he should have been - so should now be (a little late in the piece, obviously) automatically disqualified from the contest...or, having now been (effectively) all but elected, should be impeached (i.e. removed from his position) and forced, without further ado, to account for his illegal conduct, irrespective of whether he then is allowed to contest an additional run-off vote (as the Abrams' campaign is calling for). But I see it as unlikely a run-off election has already been triggered, as Stacey Abrams is apparently asserting, since that would surely only be necessitated by Kemp achieving less than half the votes, and he clearly has thus far managed a whole lot more than that...
*I refer of course to Jack Kemp, a Republican politician quite simply without peer in recent United States history, who died nine years ago and will be well-nigh impossible to ever replace.
Though Stacey Abrams - on the surface, to all appearances - appears to bear all the hallmarks of what we've all come to know through our own fraught life-experiences as 'a sore loser', appearances as we all well know can at times be awfully deceiving. And, clearly, having bothered to say that, I'm strongly intimating that this is one of those times...
And most assuredly it is. For if there was EVER what has traditionally been known as a
'conflict of interest' in a candidacy, THIS IS IT...with spades. Reflecting, if on a far less significant scale, the now ever-infamous then Floridian Secretary of State Kathleen Harris from Florida's equally-infamous and all-determining 2000 presidential election contest/counting/result, Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp's effective meddling with the ballot - to wit the illegal, state-sanctioned striking off as invalid many thousands of potential votes...before they were even counted (through traditional southern disenfranchisement tactics of black American voters)...-
...means that he should have been - so should now be (a little late in the piece, obviously) automatically disqualified from the contest...or, having now been (effectively) all but elected, should be impeached (i.e. removed from his position) and forced, without further ado, to account for his illegal conduct, irrespective of whether he then is allowed to contest an additional run-off vote (as the Abrams' campaign is calling for). But I see it as unlikely a run-off election has already been triggered, as Stacey Abrams is apparently asserting, since that would surely only be necessitated by Kemp achieving less than half the votes, and he clearly has thus far managed a whole lot more than that...
*I refer of course to Jack Kemp, a Republican politician quite simply without peer in recent United States history, who died nine years ago and will be well-nigh impossible to ever replace.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
My Own Prognostications - for what they're worth...or ain't! (Vis-a-vis the All-Important (2018) Midterm American (Congressional) Elections, that is.)
No, they're not...as you could be forgiven for assuming (ff my just-posted, intricately-titled but contentless blogpost) - zilch. But, seeing as I want to get back to Freeview Channel '13' (channel 10 upon our TV), i.e. live A.B.C. election coverage, and have been extremely conflicted up to now...going back and forth (so as not to miss too much, or anything truly significant in the TV coverage)...my predictions (as a once-budding psephologist - from my Political Science/Studies days at varsity) are - to be extremely succinct - as follows...
Following next TV break!
Though I'll freely admit, at least this morning-ish, I fully expected the Dems to clean up in the House (of Representatives), while the Republicans did much better than expected in the Senate, even to attaining a wide margin (e.g. 55-60 senators or so)...
this one thing I've fully expected/supposed/imagined would occur...and indeed, thus far it has - with spades: that the Democratic Party - *just like their Republican Party counterparts - would/will (each/both) do extremely well...much better than predicted...in their geographical strongholds/bases.
And thus and so I'm anticipating the Republicans to sweep the Bible Belt and/or the Deep South, the blue-collar, working-class Reagan Democratic territories, and the 'old-fashioned', traditional Republican Midwest. While the Democrats ****sweep their northeastern, industrial heartland and the Great Lakes/Northern Midwest, and do especially well in the West (plus mountain states, e.g. the likes of urbane **Colorado)...
Vis-a-vis Gubernatorial (Governor) Races: Quite aside from political predictions as such, I hope the extreme racist innuendoes and the like being hauled out in the dying days of the midterms in Republican campaign ads (in *****Georgia, and maybe Florida) are simply appalling/awful/ ghastly. And so I'm hoping they backfire - bigtime - though noting the much-under-reported closet racism of many (especially southern) Americans I'm not so sure on that score...esp. in ******Georgia's close race between the potential first female black American Governor, Stacey Abrams, and incumbent, Secretary of State - and election-rigger extraordinaire (take a bow, Kathleen what'shername from Presidential Election 2000) Kemp...sorry, his first name presently eludes me...
*As one wag (i.e. political commentator/pundit) put it earlier this afternoon (NZ-time), it's essentially turned into/become "a battle between demography and geography" - "the Republicans have a hold [on the latter], the Democrats [on the former]".
**And, guess what, Colorado's so far going 'according to script', as is Pennsylvania and ***New Jersey. (****The Democrats are presently on a roll, and now look set to achieve their House win.)
***Though for NJ to re-elect the scandal-ridden Menendez says something...though exit polls show the same voters gave him a 27% approval rating for having high ethics!
*****Though it's now looking bad/extremely problematic for Democratic hopeful Gillem's chances.
******Hoping former President (and Georgia Governor) Jimmy Carter will live to see the election of Georgia's first black, and first female black Governor to boot!
Following next TV break!
Though I'll freely admit, at least this morning-ish, I fully expected the Dems to clean up in the House (of Representatives), while the Republicans did much better than expected in the Senate, even to attaining a wide margin (e.g. 55-60 senators or so)...
this one thing I've fully expected/supposed/imagined would occur...and indeed, thus far it has - with spades: that the Democratic Party - *just like their Republican Party counterparts - would/will (each/both) do extremely well...much better than predicted...in their geographical strongholds/bases.
And thus and so I'm anticipating the Republicans to sweep the Bible Belt and/or the Deep South, the blue-collar, working-class Reagan Democratic territories, and the 'old-fashioned', traditional Republican Midwest. While the Democrats ****sweep their northeastern, industrial heartland and the Great Lakes/Northern Midwest, and do especially well in the West (plus mountain states, e.g. the likes of urbane **Colorado)...
Vis-a-vis Gubernatorial (Governor) Races: Quite aside from political predictions as such, I hope the extreme racist innuendoes and the like being hauled out in the dying days of the midterms in Republican campaign ads (in *****Georgia, and maybe Florida) are simply appalling/awful/ ghastly. And so I'm hoping they backfire - bigtime - though noting the much-under-reported closet racism of many (especially southern) Americans I'm not so sure on that score...esp. in ******Georgia's close race between the potential first female black American Governor, Stacey Abrams, and incumbent, Secretary of State - and election-rigger extraordinaire (take a bow, Kathleen what'shername from Presidential Election 2000) Kemp...sorry, his first name presently eludes me...
*As one wag (i.e. political commentator/pundit) put it earlier this afternoon (NZ-time), it's essentially turned into/become "a battle between demography and geography" - "the Republicans have a hold [on the latter], the Democrats [on the former]".
**And, guess what, Colorado's so far going 'according to script', as is Pennsylvania and ***New Jersey. (****The Democrats are presently on a roll, and now look set to achieve their House win.)
***Though for NJ to re-elect the scandal-ridden Menendez says something...though exit polls show the same voters gave him a 27% approval rating for having high ethics!
*****Though it's now looking bad/extremely problematic for Democratic hopeful Gillem's chances.
******Hoping former President (and Georgia Governor) Jimmy Carter will live to see the election of Georgia's first black, and first female black Governor to boot!
Monday, November 5, 2018
In Tribute of Three 'Thoroughgoingly' Unique American Muslims...who have each left their nation and our world a richer (and hopefully better) place
Hearing just the other day that it was the 40th/45th/50th? anniversary of the famous boxing match between Muhammad ('fight like a butterfly and sting like a bee') Ali and Joe Freeman (I believe it was)...and hearing once again that memorable, unforgettable refrain (above, and 'catch me if you can!'), it occurred to me that it was time to note the fact that the land of my (immediate) forbears (and their own previous forbears, and so on and on...back to Sweden and Denmark in particular)... especially in this day and age of anti-Muslim broadsides and diatribe from so many...
...(has) included three notable Muslim figures/personalities over recent times/decades...to wit:
*the aforementioned Muhammad Ali
*Martin Luther King's contemporary (and 'co-assassinatee') **Malcolm X
#Louis Farakhan (sp?)# -an awful, dreadful, near unforgivable mistake, folks: please forgive me - no, not the spelling, but the individual concerned...it should've been ***Al Sharpton/Franklin...
For sadly, as I've just discovered today (November the 9th) LF is a spouter/promoter of some of the most vile, anti-Jewish rhetoric and diatribes I've yet encountered (throughout an awfully sheltered existence/lifetime, apparently)...and if you have any quibbles thereabouts, one brief (five minute at most) viewing of a Fox News video (YouTube?) link with a (presumably Jewish) academic named Al(l)an Dershowitz of Birmingham, Michigan, will quickly disabuse/disillusion you...bigtime!
**For his eventual reconciliation with not only Martin Luther King, but moreover MLK's staunch, unswerving, nonviolent approach to civil disobedience. And because I to this day have immense sympathy with/empathy for - to the best of my ability, anyhow - black Americans (both in the era of Jim Crow, and up to, into and through the Civil Rights Era) subject to inhuman treatment at the hands of their countrymen and expected (by some, anyhow) to sit back all meek and mild and just take it.
***Apologies one and all for all my confusion of Al Sharpton and Al Franken (let alone Louis Farakhan!)...let's just say (for now)...that these three distinctly different men perhaps share a few similarities (of sorts), but for the purposes of this opinion piece that's really neither here nor there. Suffice to say/add that Al Sharpton as per his 1995 million man march on Washington D.C. (while head honcho of Nation of Islam)...had more than a few redeeming features...at least in my own view.
Malcolm X's much more militant approach is surely at least understandable to anyone with a human heart...for who of us would willingly just sit idly by and watch our beloved kindred treated to degradation and death and do diddly squat to stop it and/or get back at the perpetrators? Who...I mean, really?
To Be Continued (having been inadvertently, involuntarily detoured to this blogsite tonight when I had something infinitely more important and meaningful to post upon my other, much less used and frequented blogsite). If the 'issue' of the sanctity of life 'appeals' to your sensibilities,, you might appreciate following me there quite shortly...i.e. to
*http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).
Nuff Said!
...(has) included three notable Muslim figures/personalities over recent times/decades...to wit:
*the aforementioned Muhammad Ali
*Martin Luther King's contemporary (and 'co-assassinatee') **Malcolm X
#Louis Farakhan (sp?)# -an awful, dreadful, near unforgivable mistake, folks: please forgive me - no, not the spelling, but the individual concerned...it should've been ***Al Sharpton/Franklin...
For sadly, as I've just discovered today (November the 9th) LF is a spouter/promoter of some of the most vile, anti-Jewish rhetoric and diatribes I've yet encountered (throughout an awfully sheltered existence/lifetime, apparently)...and if you have any quibbles thereabouts, one brief (five minute at most) viewing of a Fox News video (YouTube?) link with a (presumably Jewish) academic named Al(l)an Dershowitz of Birmingham, Michigan, will quickly disabuse/disillusion you...bigtime!
**For his eventual reconciliation with not only Martin Luther King, but moreover MLK's staunch, unswerving, nonviolent approach to civil disobedience. And because I to this day have immense sympathy with/empathy for - to the best of my ability, anyhow - black Americans (both in the era of Jim Crow, and up to, into and through the Civil Rights Era) subject to inhuman treatment at the hands of their countrymen and expected (by some, anyhow) to sit back all meek and mild and just take it.
***Apologies one and all for all my confusion of Al Sharpton and Al Franken (let alone Louis Farakhan!)...let's just say (for now)...that these three distinctly different men perhaps share a few similarities (of sorts), but for the purposes of this opinion piece that's really neither here nor there. Suffice to say/add that Al Sharpton as per his 1995 million man march on Washington D.C. (while head honcho of Nation of Islam)...had more than a few redeeming features...at least in my own view.
Malcolm X's much more militant approach is surely at least understandable to anyone with a human heart...for who of us would willingly just sit idly by and watch our beloved kindred treated to degradation and death and do diddly squat to stop it and/or get back at the perpetrators? Who...I mean, really?
To Be Continued (having been inadvertently, involuntarily detoured to this blogsite tonight when I had something infinitely more important and meaningful to post upon my other, much less used and frequented blogsite). If the 'issue' of the sanctity of life 'appeals' to your sensibilities,, you might appreciate following me there quite shortly...i.e. to
*http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).
Nuff Said!
Thursday, November 1, 2018
The Wheels of Justice Grind Very Slowly...But They are Exceedingly Fine: Hurrah - Congratulations & Celebrations - for 'Asia Bibi'(Aasiya Noreen)
'Justice delayed is not justice denied.' Or, as the Good Book put it thousands of years ago:
Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11: *The Holy Bible, NKJV.)
**But in this instance the evil work was not that alleged against Aasiya Noreen (known now more commonly - for Western pronunciation sensibilities, presumably - as Asia Bibi), but rather that of her inhuman (and inhumane) accusers - whether initially (as with her fellow workers in a Pakistani field of falsa berries who levelled at her the charge of blasphemy against the Islamic prophet, Muhammed) or subsequently (right up to the present-day of (hopefully) ultimate - earthly, anyhow - freedom), to wit the vast swathes of Pakistanis who've mobilized over the past nine years and especially this very day of great victory for Aasiya Noreen...to protest - isn't it simply incredible, and incredibly awful and unbelievable - to protest that long-prayed-for deliverance? And far worse than just that besides!
***But this day (of victory and deliverance) belongs to Aasiya, her family, her supporters and her just judges...and to those many and varied folk (individuals and groups/organizations) who've stuck up for her and with her (and her family) through thick and thin, for all this sad nine long years...
The sheer injustice of what Aasiya has faced and endured need not be reiterated here, suffice to say: she's been through the mill, and above and beyond what most frail mortals will ever have to endure. And evidently with little or no justification whatsoever - beyond that of a grudge-maintaining 'friend'.
So plaudits and bouquets, all credit and glory...be given:
#Firstly, to the prayer-hearing and answering God of all the earth, Who has never yet forsaken His people, His very own, least of all in their time/s of greatest need. As 'the father of the faith', the godly Abraham himself expressed matters many thousands of years ago: *'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' (Genesis 18:25.) Yet human history (His-Story) is simply littered with human beings apparently abandoned to rack and ruin...seemingly forsaken by both God and man...even left on more than one occasion to die, neglected and alone and apparently friendless, hopeless and helpless...to death and imprisonment. ****Who never were delivered from their own lonely prison cells or torture.
#Secondly, to the people of God themselves...especially Aasiya's fellow Pakistani Christ-followers. To those in Pakistan who fasted and prayed (for however long) in the run-up to Aasiya's acquittal today/yesterday. As well as providing her (and her husband, mother and family of five children) with such prayerful - and lots of other, practical - support throughout this protracted ordeal. As well as to numerous global Christian organizations (to be noted shortly), and moreover their many members and moral (prayerful) supporters. And also to Ooberfuse, a United Kingdom-based Christian popband, who, in collaboration with the British Pakistani Christian Association, wrote a song back in the day entitled 'Free Asia Bibi'.
#Thirdly, to the three judges who have just handed down what to their fellow countrymen and women is a shocking and disturbing, unbelievable judgement (of leniency and mercy...and most galling of all: innocence!). They've taken an incalculable gamble - yes, at the very risk of their own lives (and that of their families and relatives) - and may well yet to have to pay the supreme price. But *****they have done the right thing without letting sordid considerations of policy and pragmatism contaminate their motives and actions. Yes, though doubtless none of them are (Christian) believers, I feel Jesus' penetrating words apply equally much to them: *"For whoever desires to save his [earthly] life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9: 24)
#To all those who stood by Aasiya through thick and thin, namely/chiefly:
@her lawyer/s (over the nine years).
@her family.
@the French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who helped Aasiya produce a memoir: Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death over a Cup of Water.
@*******two Pakistani politicians in particular, who deserve special mention: the one-time Governor of the Punjab, Salmaan Taseer; and the one-time Minorities Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti.
@Italy, France and Spain for offering official sanction to Assiya Noreen and her family post-release.
@for the various human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
@for the global network of Christian aid organizations who have done what(ever) they could to help secure Aasiya's release and support through this traumatic time: Voice of the Martyrs; Open Doors; Aid to the Church in Need; and International Christian Concern (in particular). And the American Center for Law and Justice (which has evidently lobbied on behalf of/in association with the US Government (upon Aasiya's behalf)).
And last - though at this stage mightily significant: recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan: whose personal singling out of this case will not go unnoticed...by anyone in Pakistan ('stuff the rest of the world'); i.e. though aware of the need to ensure Pakistan remains - more correctly, regains - some degree of international credibility in this area, he will be only too well aware that there are masses of his citizenry who are not only upset at this verdict, but are literally ropable thereabouts!
And that, push come to shove, they will not ignore the role - however oblique to our eyes - he has thus played in seeking to 'exonerate' the decision the judges have arrived at...when looking - over coming hours, days, weeks and months - for some suitable scapegoat thereabouts.
Can you believe, in 'our oh-so-sophisticated and progressive, evolved modern world' no less, that some ten million Pakistanis have been reported in one survey as saying 'they would be willing to personally kill [Aasiyi] out of either religious conviction or for the reward' - the reference being to a Muslim cleric's 500,000 Pakistani rupee (US $5,000) award/reward...? May God help Pakistan - for only He can...
In conclusion, I could hardly go beyond the following oh so appropriate thoughts...heard whilst I was 'penning' these very words:
"You may not live to see the justice, but it will {assuredly] come...and the great temptation is to doubt." (Chuck Swindoll preaching upon the biblical Book of Esther this very day/afternoon!)
'In His time...in His time...God makes everything beautiful in its time'. (A song he then quoted, itself based upon the wisdom of King Solomon as expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes.)
*(All specifically-quoted) Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
**Due acknowledgment ...without which this article would not have even been possible...here to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ('Asia Bibi blasphemy case') Accessed today, November 1, 2018. C/o https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Bibi_blasphemy_case.
***Credit here to Gandalf (aka Ian McKellen) of Lord of the Rings (filmic) fame for this phrase (the initial (nine) words anyway); or rather, to film screen writers/adapters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh (in particular), and yes, (Sir) Peter Jackson (and various others) as well...
****Among W/whom were none other than the illustrious pillars of God's New Testament revelation - firstly John the Baptist, and then, barely two-to-three years on, Jesus the Christ himself. And moreover an entire book of the Bible, Job - about which I've been scribbling and scrawling profuse, and, to my own mind, profound, notes, for the past 22-/23-some years (plus), for 'a lay-person's guide to', for your info - is devoted to a full-scale examination and investigation thereof (i.e. this thorny and fraught subject area of suffering, especially the unjust variety). So 'Christians' preaching a 'prosperity gospel' of endless blessing and favour and prosperity and deliverance - in this earthly life, that is - are grounded not in good ole-fashioned biblical theology but in mere wishful thinking. And such simply won't cut the mustard any more, if ever it did.
*****Especially to Judge/Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who went public (as no doubt is inevitable and proper procedure in any national (or even local) jurisdiction), revealing that Aasiya's two female co-workers/accusers "had no regard for the truth" and had actually manufactured a "concoction incarnate" (in [alleging Aasiya had] supposedly blasphem[ed] Muhammad/******'the Prophet'). In fact, he argued that Aasiya herself had been the recipient of blasphemy, as "[the] insulting [of] the appellate's [i.e. Asia Bibi's] religion by her Muslim co-workers was no less blasphemous" (i.e. than that alleged against her).
Khosa sat to judge the case alongside Justice Mazhar Alam, and the three-judge bench was presided over by CJP Mian Saqab Nisar.
******My words (as in, not Judge Khosa's).
*******Ultimately both assassinated as a direct result of their courageous advocacy on Aasiya's behalf, and - at least on Taseer's part - his befriending of and providing of succour to her.
Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11: *The Holy Bible, NKJV.)
**But in this instance the evil work was not that alleged against Aasiya Noreen (known now more commonly - for Western pronunciation sensibilities, presumably - as Asia Bibi), but rather that of her inhuman (and inhumane) accusers - whether initially (as with her fellow workers in a Pakistani field of falsa berries who levelled at her the charge of blasphemy against the Islamic prophet, Muhammed) or subsequently (right up to the present-day of (hopefully) ultimate - earthly, anyhow - freedom), to wit the vast swathes of Pakistanis who've mobilized over the past nine years and especially this very day of great victory for Aasiya Noreen...to protest - isn't it simply incredible, and incredibly awful and unbelievable - to protest that long-prayed-for deliverance? And far worse than just that besides!
***But this day (of victory and deliverance) belongs to Aasiya, her family, her supporters and her just judges...and to those many and varied folk (individuals and groups/organizations) who've stuck up for her and with her (and her family) through thick and thin, for all this sad nine long years...
The sheer injustice of what Aasiya has faced and endured need not be reiterated here, suffice to say: she's been through the mill, and above and beyond what most frail mortals will ever have to endure. And evidently with little or no justification whatsoever - beyond that of a grudge-maintaining 'friend'.
So plaudits and bouquets, all credit and glory...be given:
#Firstly, to the prayer-hearing and answering God of all the earth, Who has never yet forsaken His people, His very own, least of all in their time/s of greatest need. As 'the father of the faith', the godly Abraham himself expressed matters many thousands of years ago: *'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' (Genesis 18:25.) Yet human history (His-Story) is simply littered with human beings apparently abandoned to rack and ruin...seemingly forsaken by both God and man...even left on more than one occasion to die, neglected and alone and apparently friendless, hopeless and helpless...to death and imprisonment. ****Who never were delivered from their own lonely prison cells or torture.
#Secondly, to the people of God themselves...especially Aasiya's fellow Pakistani Christ-followers. To those in Pakistan who fasted and prayed (for however long) in the run-up to Aasiya's acquittal today/yesterday. As well as providing her (and her husband, mother and family of five children) with such prayerful - and lots of other, practical - support throughout this protracted ordeal. As well as to numerous global Christian organizations (to be noted shortly), and moreover their many members and moral (prayerful) supporters. And also to Ooberfuse, a United Kingdom-based Christian popband, who, in collaboration with the British Pakistani Christian Association, wrote a song back in the day entitled 'Free Asia Bibi'.
#Thirdly, to the three judges who have just handed down what to their fellow countrymen and women is a shocking and disturbing, unbelievable judgement (of leniency and mercy...and most galling of all: innocence!). They've taken an incalculable gamble - yes, at the very risk of their own lives (and that of their families and relatives) - and may well yet to have to pay the supreme price. But *****they have done the right thing without letting sordid considerations of policy and pragmatism contaminate their motives and actions. Yes, though doubtless none of them are (Christian) believers, I feel Jesus' penetrating words apply equally much to them: *"For whoever desires to save his [earthly] life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9: 24)
#To all those who stood by Aasiya through thick and thin, namely/chiefly:
@her lawyer/s (over the nine years).
@her family.
@the French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who helped Aasiya produce a memoir: Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death over a Cup of Water.
@*******two Pakistani politicians in particular, who deserve special mention: the one-time Governor of the Punjab, Salmaan Taseer; and the one-time Minorities Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti.
@Italy, France and Spain for offering official sanction to Assiya Noreen and her family post-release.
@for the various human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
@for the global network of Christian aid organizations who have done what(ever) they could to help secure Aasiya's release and support through this traumatic time: Voice of the Martyrs; Open Doors; Aid to the Church in Need; and International Christian Concern (in particular). And the American Center for Law and Justice (which has evidently lobbied on behalf of/in association with the US Government (upon Aasiya's behalf)).
And last - though at this stage mightily significant: recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan: whose personal singling out of this case will not go unnoticed...by anyone in Pakistan ('stuff the rest of the world'); i.e. though aware of the need to ensure Pakistan remains - more correctly, regains - some degree of international credibility in this area, he will be only too well aware that there are masses of his citizenry who are not only upset at this verdict, but are literally ropable thereabouts!
And that, push come to shove, they will not ignore the role - however oblique to our eyes - he has thus played in seeking to 'exonerate' the decision the judges have arrived at...when looking - over coming hours, days, weeks and months - for some suitable scapegoat thereabouts.
Can you believe, in 'our oh-so-sophisticated and progressive, evolved modern world' no less, that some ten million Pakistanis have been reported in one survey as saying 'they would be willing to personally kill [Aasiyi] out of either religious conviction or for the reward' - the reference being to a Muslim cleric's 500,000 Pakistani rupee (US $5,000) award/reward...? May God help Pakistan - for only He can...
In conclusion, I could hardly go beyond the following oh so appropriate thoughts...heard whilst I was 'penning' these very words:
"You may not live to see the justice, but it will {assuredly] come...and the great temptation is to doubt." (Chuck Swindoll preaching upon the biblical Book of Esther this very day/afternoon!)
'In His time...in His time...God makes everything beautiful in its time'. (A song he then quoted, itself based upon the wisdom of King Solomon as expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes.)
*(All specifically-quoted) Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
**Due acknowledgment ...without which this article would not have even been possible...here to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ('Asia Bibi blasphemy case') Accessed today, November 1, 2018. C/o https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Bibi_blasphemy_case.
***Credit here to Gandalf (aka Ian McKellen) of Lord of the Rings (filmic) fame for this phrase (the initial (nine) words anyway); or rather, to film screen writers/adapters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh (in particular), and yes, (Sir) Peter Jackson (and various others) as well...
****Among W/whom were none other than the illustrious pillars of God's New Testament revelation - firstly John the Baptist, and then, barely two-to-three years on, Jesus the Christ himself. And moreover an entire book of the Bible, Job - about which I've been scribbling and scrawling profuse, and, to my own mind, profound, notes, for the past 22-/23-some years (plus), for 'a lay-person's guide to', for your info - is devoted to a full-scale examination and investigation thereof (i.e. this thorny and fraught subject area of suffering, especially the unjust variety). So 'Christians' preaching a 'prosperity gospel' of endless blessing and favour and prosperity and deliverance - in this earthly life, that is - are grounded not in good ole-fashioned biblical theology but in mere wishful thinking. And such simply won't cut the mustard any more, if ever it did.
*****Especially to Judge/Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who went public (as no doubt is inevitable and proper procedure in any national (or even local) jurisdiction), revealing that Aasiya's two female co-workers/accusers "had no regard for the truth" and had actually manufactured a "concoction incarnate" (in [alleging Aasiya had] supposedly blasphem[ed] Muhammad/******'the Prophet'). In fact, he argued that Aasiya herself had been the recipient of blasphemy, as "[the] insulting [of] the appellate's [i.e. Asia Bibi's] religion by her Muslim co-workers was no less blasphemous" (i.e. than that alleged against her).
Khosa sat to judge the case alongside Justice Mazhar Alam, and the three-judge bench was presided over by CJP Mian Saqab Nisar.
******My words (as in, not Judge Khosa's).
*******Ultimately both assassinated as a direct result of their courageous advocacy on Aasiya's behalf, and - at least on Taseer's part - his befriending of and providing of succour to her.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
And how's this for a fourth reason? President Barack Obama's Unprecedented Involvement in Not Just Commenting On, But Essentially Dumping On - and Bigtime at that - the Actions of his Successor
Yes indeed. And so for all subsequent presidents, be they Republican or Democratic, the stage is now set...and no one's presidency will any longer be off-limits (in the previous time-honoured fashion).
But for now I only intend to follow up upon some stuff I alluded to in a very recent blogpost re Barack Obama and succinctly state that Obama himself signally failed to uphold the United States' proud, centuries' old traditions vis-a-vis the Christian religion and its adherents. And this has had a major bearing upon how once Obama-supporting evangelicals in America have subsequently not only questioned, even eschewed Obama's legacy, but have largely and consequently embraced that of Trump.
Though I've no doubt that both he and wife Michelle were hardly the gun-totin', Islamist terrorists once portrayed by 'The New Yorker' on an infamous cover story back during Presidential Campaign 2008 - let alone even being secret Muslims - on (*at least) two major counts Christians of whatever stripes throughout the US of A had just grounds for not only concern but positive alarm during his two-term tenure. And I don't refer here to yet another matter - i.e. Obama lending his personal support to doing away with America's (and the World's) ages-old endorsement and exaltation of the (publicly-celebrated) union of a man and a woman as being the only proper (and indeed just) basis of a marital covenant/commitment, let alone for raising well-balanced and thriving children.
After which Parliaments throughout the Western world quickly fell into lockstep and hastily rammed through - legislatively where possible (without much public feedback let alone say as in a binding decision via a referendum), or otherwise did hold such a referendum (as in Ireland) - new laws to allow for 'gay marriage': France, the United Kingdom and New Zealand being three nations which readily spring to recollection. My point being that all that ground-breaking change was based upon or inspired by - given momentum through - was President Obama's supposed (midterm) Damascus Road experience whereby he no longer saw why homosexuals' 'tying the knot' was any big deal.
As noted Creation Scientist Ken Ham explained in a recent Sunday morning 'Cue' (Hope Channel)
sermon/lecture, Obama unilaterally eschewed America's time-honoured Christian heritage (while embracing some new, amorphous 'multicultural' amalgam) upon taking office (as revealed in his various books/writings upon such matters around/prior to that time, thus 'putting on the table' his own 'manifesto' for office. That's his first major sin vis-a-vis Christendom. And the second?
He subsequently abandoned/forsook the persecuted-to-the- death Christian sufferers of genocidal extermination throughout both the Middle East and the (Asian and African) world generally - throughout his eight-year tenure. And so Barack Hussein Obama can hardly feign surprise that his 'fellow' American Christians have subsequently turned to, even positively embraced, Donald J Trump as their national 'saviour'. Despite his obvious as shortcomings.
*Though the - ultimately thwarted - attempt to enforce Federal Government mandated-contraception via unwilling Catholic hospitals is doubtless another (example of such gross spitting in the face of America's Christian community)...if just for completely violating the oft-cited principle of the American Constitution both prohibiting the establishment of religion and/or forbidding the free exercise thereof.
But for now I only intend to follow up upon some stuff I alluded to in a very recent blogpost re Barack Obama and succinctly state that Obama himself signally failed to uphold the United States' proud, centuries' old traditions vis-a-vis the Christian religion and its adherents. And this has had a major bearing upon how once Obama-supporting evangelicals in America have subsequently not only questioned, even eschewed Obama's legacy, but have largely and consequently embraced that of Trump.
Though I've no doubt that both he and wife Michelle were hardly the gun-totin', Islamist terrorists once portrayed by 'The New Yorker' on an infamous cover story back during Presidential Campaign 2008 - let alone even being secret Muslims - on (*at least) two major counts Christians of whatever stripes throughout the US of A had just grounds for not only concern but positive alarm during his two-term tenure. And I don't refer here to yet another matter - i.e. Obama lending his personal support to doing away with America's (and the World's) ages-old endorsement and exaltation of the (publicly-celebrated) union of a man and a woman as being the only proper (and indeed just) basis of a marital covenant/commitment, let alone for raising well-balanced and thriving children.
After which Parliaments throughout the Western world quickly fell into lockstep and hastily rammed through - legislatively where possible (without much public feedback let alone say as in a binding decision via a referendum), or otherwise did hold such a referendum (as in Ireland) - new laws to allow for 'gay marriage': France, the United Kingdom and New Zealand being three nations which readily spring to recollection. My point being that all that ground-breaking change was based upon or inspired by - given momentum through - was President Obama's supposed (midterm) Damascus Road experience whereby he no longer saw why homosexuals' 'tying the knot' was any big deal.
As noted Creation Scientist Ken Ham explained in a recent Sunday morning 'Cue' (Hope Channel)
sermon/lecture, Obama unilaterally eschewed America's time-honoured Christian heritage (while embracing some new, amorphous 'multicultural' amalgam) upon taking office (as revealed in his various books/writings upon such matters around/prior to that time, thus 'putting on the table' his own 'manifesto' for office. That's his first major sin vis-a-vis Christendom. And the second?
He subsequently abandoned/forsook the persecuted-to-the- death Christian sufferers of genocidal extermination throughout both the Middle East and the (Asian and African) world generally - throughout his eight-year tenure. And so Barack Hussein Obama can hardly feign surprise that his 'fellow' American Christians have subsequently turned to, even positively embraced, Donald J Trump as their national 'saviour'. Despite his obvious as shortcomings.
*Though the - ultimately thwarted - attempt to enforce Federal Government mandated-contraception via unwilling Catholic hospitals is doubtless another (example of such gross spitting in the face of America's Christian community)...if just for completely violating the oft-cited principle of the American Constitution both prohibiting the establishment of religion and/or forbidding the free exercise thereof.
Me Knows Thou Dost Protest Over-Much: Anticipating An Absolute - Once Simply Unthinkable - Rout For The American Democratic Party in their upcoming Midterms
No, I haven't suddenly transmogrified into some kinda apologist-in-chief for the American Republican Party - far from it in fact - but, like Michael Moore prior to Presidential Election 2016, I am not too blindsided by partisan political and ideological reckonings and musings and plannings and plottings to see the Democrats squarely facing into a significant defeat - maybe even rout - come next **Tuesday's/Wednesday's Midterm Elections...
And why? They've completely overplayed their hand - to the nth degree, well beyond that, and then some (and I'm probably considerably understating matters)...no, I kid you not! But in case you need convincing, though just now I've no time to majorly elaborate, let's just 'say', how about?:
*The whole Brett Kavanaugh saga...which may well be repeated (before all that long evidently), seeing as Sandra Day O'Connor (I believe) announced just the other day her plans to possibly retire.
*Related to this...and to many other 'presenting' issues in modern American political life: the unwillingness of many (of Generation Now) to accept the results of the democratic process as well as the United States' constitutionally-enshrined and guaranteed provision of free speech; thus seeking to ***not only shout (and shut) down their opponents (at venues such as college campuses - and even in the federal (and state) legislature/s!) but to 'positively' accost/molest them in public places/spaces
*The utter inability and/or sheer unwillingness for the mainstream (TV/print/broadcast) media in the U.S. to - pretty well ever - 'give credit where credit is due': i.e. - to bring the matter down home - to follow in the well-worn footsteps of Yours Truly and simply - and honestly: bestow bouquets (as well as brickbats) with fear of and favour toward none...yes, including even Donald J Trump!
That's it, folks...only a few items really...but the sheer lack thereof might well make all the difference: spelling the difference between what initially promised to be a ****resounding victory (in both the House of Representatives and the Senate) to a ****veritable drubbing, at least in the United States Senate.
As C.J (from the oh so brilliant 'Rise and Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin') might have put matters - I didn't get where I am today by not being able to see a political party staring down the barrel of a political drubbing when I see it!
**Wednesday New Zealand time, that is...
***And such have the gall to constantly call out the so-called 'Right' as spreaders of hate speech!
****For the U S Democratic Party, that is; the opposite story now looks set to be the narrative of the GOP, who'll be having a grand 'ole party indeed, come next Tuesday (US time).
And why? They've completely overplayed their hand - to the nth degree, well beyond that, and then some (and I'm probably considerably understating matters)...no, I kid you not! But in case you need convincing, though just now I've no time to majorly elaborate, let's just 'say', how about?:
*The whole Brett Kavanaugh saga...which may well be repeated (before all that long evidently), seeing as Sandra Day O'Connor (I believe) announced just the other day her plans to possibly retire.
*Related to this...and to many other 'presenting' issues in modern American political life: the unwillingness of many (of Generation Now) to accept the results of the democratic process as well as the United States' constitutionally-enshrined and guaranteed provision of free speech; thus seeking to ***not only shout (and shut) down their opponents (at venues such as college campuses - and even in the federal (and state) legislature/s!) but to 'positively' accost/molest them in public places/spaces
*The utter inability and/or sheer unwillingness for the mainstream (TV/print/broadcast) media in the U.S. to - pretty well ever - 'give credit where credit is due': i.e. - to bring the matter down home - to follow in the well-worn footsteps of Yours Truly and simply - and honestly: bestow bouquets (as well as brickbats) with fear of and favour toward none...yes, including even Donald J Trump!
That's it, folks...only a few items really...but the sheer lack thereof might well make all the difference: spelling the difference between what initially promised to be a ****resounding victory (in both the House of Representatives and the Senate) to a ****veritable drubbing, at least in the United States Senate.
As C.J (from the oh so brilliant 'Rise and Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin') might have put matters - I didn't get where I am today by not being able to see a political party staring down the barrel of a political drubbing when I see it!
**Wednesday New Zealand time, that is...
***And such have the gall to constantly call out the so-called 'Right' as spreaders of hate speech!
****For the U S Democratic Party, that is; the opposite story now looks set to be the narrative of the GOP, who'll be having a grand 'ole party indeed, come next Tuesday (US time).
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ye Typical Talkback-Driven Beat-Up: Partisan Political Posturing at Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway's Expense
Having presided over (seemingly) innumerable disgusting, even outrageous deportations of people who eminently deserved the 'prerogative of mercy' (so to speak), spare me/us the sudden emerging out of the veritable woodwork of National Party-sympathizing lackeys and neophytes feigning faux outrage vis-a-vis this latest intricately-assessed and otherwise-nit-picked situation.
Hey, no doubt my memory's playing up, but - whichever Minister (at the time) it happened to be - do I or don't I distinctly recall a wonderful British fellow (and his family) being unceremoniously ejected and deported from Otorohunga(sp?) under the last Government's nine-year watch?
Someone moreover who'd provided lots of fantastic work (and related opportunities) to oodles of folk in that smallish North Island centre. Yet despite a long, long petitioning process (and awaiting some semblance of natural compassion from the authorities that be - to wit the Immigration Minister of the day)...far as I can recall nothing whatsoever came of it...
...and our great media simply let the matter disappear under ye proverbial rug and on into obscurity...
Afterthoughts (2.46 p.m., Friday the 9th of November)
A Little Ignorance Can Certainly Be An Exceedingly Dangerous Thing
Indeed, though I don't resile from any of my reflections upon preceding *National Government ministers and administrations...and their 'disposal' of various and sundry legitimate 'cases' of potential immigrants to NZ...or, for that matter, upon how various and sundry talkback hosts (the purely partisan, ideologically-driven ones, that is) ever and anon seize upon this bugbear and bane of our life and times...to cause undue fear and loathing among the citizenry...
I'll freely admit that my initial comments (immediately above) re the Iain Lees-Galloway botchup appear wholly wide of the mark...as things have since transpired and come out into the cold hard light of day and disinfectant... As Winston Churchill once **so memorably replied/responded to one of his political opponents/critics, when the absolute inconsistency between a position he now held and one he had held previously on the selfsame matter was held up to public view and derision: "When new and differing information comes to light I change and adjust to that reality. Prithee, Sir, what do you do?"
And Iain Lees-Galloway's alleged sins...for which he is well overdue for a proper sacking (and which make Clare Curran's and Mita Whaitiri's (sp?) relative failings look like ye proverbial walk in the public park)? Only a couple...though they do appear somewhat significant ones: essentially ***steadfastly, even radiantly, blaming all his subordinates/underlings (eat yer heart out, 'Yes Minister'!) for failings pretty much all of his own making; and taking the briefest of possible times to properly review the case (when it was put upon his desk) rather than being duly thoughtful and caretaking thereabouts as he'd led one and all to believe...
From Guyin(sp?) Espinot's (sp?) RNZ National interview with National Party immigration spokesperson (and former minister) Michael Woodhouse this morning it appears ILG pretty well did everything wrong (one could possibly do - wrong)...and, Friday being the day of dismissal, i.e. when the news cycle is quietening down for the weekend - no, I don't blame the current Govt, that's nothing on Textor and Crosby - I wouldn't rate Iain Lees-Galloway's chances of surviving (in cabinet) beyond today all that highly...even if P.M. Ardern has again seemingly categorically affirmed this very morning that she has no intention whatsoever of dismissing the ****felon!
*Just like many or most or all of their Labour Party Government counterparts, mind you...
**An extremely paraphrased version thereof, I'll grant...but I have read the quote for myself...I think! Otherwise I've certainly heard it read out.
***Apologies for the bad taste in utilizing the name of Radiant Steadfast (mother of eleven who just died overnight in the West Coast flooding) to express things rather cutely, but I mean no offence...
****Again, apologies for using a bit of journalistic licence (or latitude of language)...
Hey, no doubt my memory's playing up, but - whichever Minister (at the time) it happened to be - do I or don't I distinctly recall a wonderful British fellow (and his family) being unceremoniously ejected and deported from Otorohunga(sp?) under the last Government's nine-year watch?
Someone moreover who'd provided lots of fantastic work (and related opportunities) to oodles of folk in that smallish North Island centre. Yet despite a long, long petitioning process (and awaiting some semblance of natural compassion from the authorities that be - to wit the Immigration Minister of the day)...far as I can recall nothing whatsoever came of it...
...and our great media simply let the matter disappear under ye proverbial rug and on into obscurity...
Afterthoughts (2.46 p.m., Friday the 9th of November)
A Little Ignorance Can Certainly Be An Exceedingly Dangerous Thing
Indeed, though I don't resile from any of my reflections upon preceding *National Government ministers and administrations...and their 'disposal' of various and sundry legitimate 'cases' of potential immigrants to NZ...or, for that matter, upon how various and sundry talkback hosts (the purely partisan, ideologically-driven ones, that is) ever and anon seize upon this bugbear and bane of our life and times...to cause undue fear and loathing among the citizenry...
I'll freely admit that my initial comments (immediately above) re the Iain Lees-Galloway botchup appear wholly wide of the mark...as things have since transpired and come out into the cold hard light of day and disinfectant... As Winston Churchill once **so memorably replied/responded to one of his political opponents/critics, when the absolute inconsistency between a position he now held and one he had held previously on the selfsame matter was held up to public view and derision: "When new and differing information comes to light I change and adjust to that reality. Prithee, Sir, what do you do?"
And Iain Lees-Galloway's alleged sins...for which he is well overdue for a proper sacking (and which make Clare Curran's and Mita Whaitiri's (sp?) relative failings look like ye proverbial walk in the public park)? Only a couple...though they do appear somewhat significant ones: essentially ***steadfastly, even radiantly, blaming all his subordinates/underlings (eat yer heart out, 'Yes Minister'!) for failings pretty much all of his own making; and taking the briefest of possible times to properly review the case (when it was put upon his desk) rather than being duly thoughtful and caretaking thereabouts as he'd led one and all to believe...
From Guyin(sp?) Espinot's (sp?) RNZ National interview with National Party immigration spokesperson (and former minister) Michael Woodhouse this morning it appears ILG pretty well did everything wrong (one could possibly do - wrong)...and, Friday being the day of dismissal, i.e. when the news cycle is quietening down for the weekend - no, I don't blame the current Govt, that's nothing on Textor and Crosby - I wouldn't rate Iain Lees-Galloway's chances of surviving (in cabinet) beyond today all that highly...even if P.M. Ardern has again seemingly categorically affirmed this very morning that she has no intention whatsoever of dismissing the ****felon!
*Just like many or most or all of their Labour Party Government counterparts, mind you...
**An extremely paraphrased version thereof, I'll grant...but I have read the quote for myself...I think! Otherwise I've certainly heard it read out.
***Apologies for the bad taste in utilizing the name of Radiant Steadfast (mother of eleven who just died overnight in the West Coast flooding) to express things rather cutely, but I mean no offence...
****Again, apologies for using a bit of journalistic licence (or latitude of language)...
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