...of one M.P. who (not that long ago) told a male colleague - and one, moreover, who'd been undergoing major mental health issues for some considerable time - he ought to go kill himself...
...of another - anecdotally, and quite credibly - considered to have been majorly bullying staff...
...and of a third, now shown to have not acted, when given an altogether opportune time to do so less than two years back, to ban semi-automatic weapons from the length and breadth of - what was then still - 'God's Own' nation...
And what, prithee, happens to connect all these individuals - the first an up-and-coming backbencher, the second a former minister of the Crown, the third a former (and present) deputy leader of one of New Zealand's two main political parties? They share this common trait: they're all female National Party M.P.s...
...only apparently not subject to the kinds of stringent standards ever applied - without a qualm or moment's hesitation, much less a blush or batting of the eye - to their male counterparts...
...and that's before/not even giving due time and attention to the Green Party's ever outspoken 'human rights' spokesperson who just so happens to have been a high-profile lawyer in both Serbia and Rwanda back in the 1990s evidently... And doing precisely what, you quite rightly ask? Why, only defending the indefensible, to wit various and sundry instigators of the ethnic cleansing then taking place in those parts...or, to use common vernacular...a practising, on-the-ground, representative of and for people who had been promoting the genocide then taking place in each respective jurisdiction....
So for the likes of Greens' co-leader Marama Davidson, in her rant and rave (as opposed to gracious, considered and measured speech) in our Parliament today in the aftermath of the dreadful events that occurred here in NZ last Friday...to use it as an excuse for having a serve at colonialism and those who attack people of different religions...without - oh so predictably - ever mentioning the subtle but strong anti-Christian thread now running rampant not only throughout the Middle East (where it's far more explicit and more akin to the sort of anti-semitism once witnessed in the Third Reich and its sister (European) Axis nations), but even showing up more and more prominently throughout Western lands, promoted unapologetically by its mainstream media...while carefully singling out each and every other creed she could think of...when, on a global level, it is hardly arguable whether those of a Christian faith aren't being treated every bit as appallingly as those of the various other faiths she referred to...
...and to then lecture us all about dealing with our own biases and prejudices to rid our world of the awful scourge of so-called 'hate speech' which she and others generally employ for any and every viewpoint that so happens to be at all uncomfortable for her and co...
is just a little bit rich, and then some...
...just for starters, you understand...
Postscript - upon further reflection...
Having just re-listened to Ms Davidson's parliamentary speech this afternoon (on the relevant TV channel), I must admit the need to temper my comments somewhat majorly...insofar as her speech was - on the whole, by-and-large - actually quite a measured, considered and even gracious one after all...albeit with the selfsame major caveats afore-mentioned...chiefly the double-standards ever applied without a moment's hesitation even to those of a major world religion...though the actual numbers of adherents thereof really oughtn't to make a dime of difference, it's the principle of the matter that does indeed matter - and greatly - to thinking men and women everywhere...
You see, said mainstream media itself this very eve has lost no time at all in getting stuck in boots and high heels and all in slamming the National Party (under its present leader in particular) for allowing the party's (then, but now evidently rescinded) opposition to a major United Nations treaty on immigration NZ had (not quite yet) signed up to...to remain upon the party's website...
...as if each and every viewpoint which could possibly be construed as anti-Muslim (even if only by implication - as if any and every potential immigrant here is of that particular religious persuasion) has now become, ipso facto, like ye proverbial persona non grata...
...which is why I simply have to say that a morning radio talk host, to wit the infamous Mike Hosking himself, is 'right on the money' in this regard...when he stated, in an incisively argued and articulate editorial this morning, that we'll need - *going forward - to be exceedingly careful that we don't use the tragic events of last Friday to shut down legitimate debate and criticism of say party policies upon that (**ever-contentious) matter of immigration...
But sadly, unfortunately, tragically even, I do detect folk going exactly to that particular place already...
*Yes, I hate - detest - that newspeak as well, probably even more than you do, to be honest...
**My phraseology just there, not Mike's.
Post-Postscript:
As far as Facebook's thus far limp-wristed attempts to suggest it was just altogether way too difficult by half to deal with all the inherent issues involved in preventing the ghastly live on-line screening of last Friday's massacre - or rather, to run for cover and not even seek to explicate the inexplicable, or excuse the patently inexcusable...
...as Newstalk ZB host Chris Lynch (and many others) have thus far stated, that's just a little too much to credit...seeing as apparently whenever one seeks to download (or upload - whatever) music one is instantly prevented doing so...without further ado...
...and/or as regular RNZ National panellist Bernard Hickey/Hickie said today, if it's possible to create AI (i.e. artificial intelligence)...then - by logical implication - this should be as well...
...just as (on an altogether mundane level) I'm always intrigued/baffled/dumbfounded/p...ed off, quite frankly...and altogether incredulous moreover, that in a day and age of the most sophisticated technology imaginable it still takes five-some days to clear ye ole-fashioned cheque...
And in a similar vein, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly today with someone I've had my issues with in times past. Yet in this case - and admittedly I've ever found the 'honourable gentleman' an honest parliamentary broker (which is reasonably high praise from me, anyhow) whatever my disagreements on a sheer policy level - Gerry Brownlie's own criticism thereabouts on Larry Williams' Drive (Show) late this afternoon (not only vis-a-vis, as per Mr Hickie/Hickey, the non-show of Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg a full four days already post the Christchurch massacre, but moreover) vis-a-vis the utter failure of New Zealand's intelligence agencies - after substantial contributions at the end of the last Government's tenure - and with all the means at their disposal, and this dude's apparent high-profile movements (around the world to highly suspect places and moreover upon the internet over preceding months) to even notice him evidently...
...were right on...and yes, nothing less, as he carefully and ably articulated, than a full 'royal commission of inquiry' thereabouts will now suffice to get to the bottom of the intelligence agencies' complete and utter failure to get onto this fellow before he wrought his irrevocable damage...
Post-Post-Postscript:
As to Simon Bridges' (parliamentary contribution today) - and someone on RNZ National's Panel discussion yesterday aft - paraphrasing the late great Dr Martin Luther King...it'd be difficult and I'd be hard pressed to go better than myself re-quoting their comments thereabouts...to wit:
the only way to expel darkness is not with more darkness, but to let in light...
the only way to expel hate is not with more hate, but through love...
After all (is said and done), it was the Master's method...and as such it can't fail...ever...
...of another - anecdotally, and quite credibly - considered to have been majorly bullying staff...
...and of a third, now shown to have not acted, when given an altogether opportune time to do so less than two years back, to ban semi-automatic weapons from the length and breadth of - what was then still - 'God's Own' nation...
And what, prithee, happens to connect all these individuals - the first an up-and-coming backbencher, the second a former minister of the Crown, the third a former (and present) deputy leader of one of New Zealand's two main political parties? They share this common trait: they're all female National Party M.P.s...
...only apparently not subject to the kinds of stringent standards ever applied - without a qualm or moment's hesitation, much less a blush or batting of the eye - to their male counterparts...
...and that's before/not even giving due time and attention to the Green Party's ever outspoken 'human rights' spokesperson who just so happens to have been a high-profile lawyer in both Serbia and Rwanda back in the 1990s evidently... And doing precisely what, you quite rightly ask? Why, only defending the indefensible, to wit various and sundry instigators of the ethnic cleansing then taking place in those parts...or, to use common vernacular...a practising, on-the-ground, representative of and for people who had been promoting the genocide then taking place in each respective jurisdiction....
So for the likes of Greens' co-leader Marama Davidson, in her rant and rave (as opposed to gracious, considered and measured speech) in our Parliament today in the aftermath of the dreadful events that occurred here in NZ last Friday...to use it as an excuse for having a serve at colonialism and those who attack people of different religions...without - oh so predictably - ever mentioning the subtle but strong anti-Christian thread now running rampant not only throughout the Middle East (where it's far more explicit and more akin to the sort of anti-semitism once witnessed in the Third Reich and its sister (European) Axis nations), but even showing up more and more prominently throughout Western lands, promoted unapologetically by its mainstream media...while carefully singling out each and every other creed she could think of...when, on a global level, it is hardly arguable whether those of a Christian faith aren't being treated every bit as appallingly as those of the various other faiths she referred to...
...and to then lecture us all about dealing with our own biases and prejudices to rid our world of the awful scourge of so-called 'hate speech' which she and others generally employ for any and every viewpoint that so happens to be at all uncomfortable for her and co...
is just a little bit rich, and then some...
...just for starters, you understand...
Postscript - upon further reflection...
Having just re-listened to Ms Davidson's parliamentary speech this afternoon (on the relevant TV channel), I must admit the need to temper my comments somewhat majorly...insofar as her speech was - on the whole, by-and-large - actually quite a measured, considered and even gracious one after all...albeit with the selfsame major caveats afore-mentioned...chiefly the double-standards ever applied without a moment's hesitation even to those of a major world religion...though the actual numbers of adherents thereof really oughtn't to make a dime of difference, it's the principle of the matter that does indeed matter - and greatly - to thinking men and women everywhere...
You see, said mainstream media itself this very eve has lost no time at all in getting stuck in boots and high heels and all in slamming the National Party (under its present leader in particular) for allowing the party's (then, but now evidently rescinded) opposition to a major United Nations treaty on immigration NZ had (not quite yet) signed up to...to remain upon the party's website...
...as if each and every viewpoint which could possibly be construed as anti-Muslim (even if only by implication - as if any and every potential immigrant here is of that particular religious persuasion) has now become, ipso facto, like ye proverbial persona non grata...
...which is why I simply have to say that a morning radio talk host, to wit the infamous Mike Hosking himself, is 'right on the money' in this regard...when he stated, in an incisively argued and articulate editorial this morning, that we'll need - *going forward - to be exceedingly careful that we don't use the tragic events of last Friday to shut down legitimate debate and criticism of say party policies upon that (**ever-contentious) matter of immigration...
But sadly, unfortunately, tragically even, I do detect folk going exactly to that particular place already...
*Yes, I hate - detest - that newspeak as well, probably even more than you do, to be honest...
**My phraseology just there, not Mike's.
Post-Postscript:
As far as Facebook's thus far limp-wristed attempts to suggest it was just altogether way too difficult by half to deal with all the inherent issues involved in preventing the ghastly live on-line screening of last Friday's massacre - or rather, to run for cover and not even seek to explicate the inexplicable, or excuse the patently inexcusable...
...as Newstalk ZB host Chris Lynch (and many others) have thus far stated, that's just a little too much to credit...seeing as apparently whenever one seeks to download (or upload - whatever) music one is instantly prevented doing so...without further ado...
...and/or as regular RNZ National panellist Bernard Hickey/Hickie said today, if it's possible to create AI (i.e. artificial intelligence)...then - by logical implication - this should be as well...
...just as (on an altogether mundane level) I'm always intrigued/baffled/dumbfounded/p...ed off, quite frankly...and altogether incredulous moreover, that in a day and age of the most sophisticated technology imaginable it still takes five-some days to clear ye ole-fashioned cheque...
And in a similar vein, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly today with someone I've had my issues with in times past. Yet in this case - and admittedly I've ever found the 'honourable gentleman' an honest parliamentary broker (which is reasonably high praise from me, anyhow) whatever my disagreements on a sheer policy level - Gerry Brownlie's own criticism thereabouts on Larry Williams' Drive (Show) late this afternoon (not only vis-a-vis, as per Mr Hickie/Hickey, the non-show of Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg a full four days already post the Christchurch massacre, but moreover) vis-a-vis the utter failure of New Zealand's intelligence agencies - after substantial contributions at the end of the last Government's tenure - and with all the means at their disposal, and this dude's apparent high-profile movements (around the world to highly suspect places and moreover upon the internet over preceding months) to even notice him evidently...
...were right on...and yes, nothing less, as he carefully and ably articulated, than a full 'royal commission of inquiry' thereabouts will now suffice to get to the bottom of the intelligence agencies' complete and utter failure to get onto this fellow before he wrought his irrevocable damage...
Post-Post-Postscript:
As to Simon Bridges' (parliamentary contribution today) - and someone on RNZ National's Panel discussion yesterday aft - paraphrasing the late great Dr Martin Luther King...it'd be difficult and I'd be hard pressed to go better than myself re-quoting their comments thereabouts...to wit:
the only way to expel darkness is not with more darkness, but to let in light...
the only way to expel hate is not with more hate, but through love...
After all (is said and done), it was the Master's method...and as such it can't fail...ever...
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