Pursuing the Poison Trail...from a Previous Pope all the way through to the latest High-Profile Russian Political Dissident: hey folks, the evidence all points in only one particular direction...

Though I've absolutely no truck whatsoever with a long-established clandestine *outfit, indeed secret society, which was long accused - for very good and substantiatable reason - as one which **surreptitiously inveigled itself into the confidence of kings and princes, of prime ministers and presidents...for literally centuries of European history...

***...by no less than the man pretty well universally acknowledged as America's greatest President ever - no, commiserations, Donald, it most certainly ain't you! -  

in this case, having carefully considered the evidence as outlined by world-renowned scholar, the late David Yallop, who as readers might be familiar has written a number of significant 'murder mysteries' (of the real-life variety, that is), including

Beyond Reasonable Doubt, as kiwis/NZers well know about the wrongful imprisonment of Arthur Allan Thomas (back in the late nineteen-sixties/early nineteen-seventies) for the murder of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe,

The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of Pope John Paul 11's Vatican,

In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul 1,

I personally believe John Paul 1's death to have been brought about through the same means (i.e. poisoning) and by the same coterie of assassins who finished off (****I believe it was) a Russian archbishop at the time...just prior to doing so to John Paul, and in the selfsame Vatican building.

Sadly, due to family reasons - a never-ending thing in my family, about which I'll have to write at some stage...but let's just say for now there's a reason why I have so much respect and time for peoples and nations attempting to reinstate a little thing called boundaries. Yes, their methods may well oftentimes be highly problematic and questionable/dubious, even (pun completely unintended) bordering on amoral and immoral...

...but seriously, folks, 'boundaries' simply define where we (and others) happen to begin/end...and thus define the parameters of many an issue and conflict in life...even pretty well being at the core of those long-cherished but now endlessly 'dissed' principles known as the Ten Commandments.

*Which must necessarily go unnamed for now (for various reasons), though I reckon your guess might get you there...

**For one of the very best accounts thereof, I cannot strongly enough recommend a century-old classic, Ellen G White's seminal The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, otherwise known as Cosmic Conflict.

***I'm sure only one name sprang to your mind, that of Abraham Lincoln of course; indeed it would seem pretty well established that he himself was ultimately eliminated by selfsame order... - about which much has doubtless been written; for my own particular take thereupon, you couldn't go wrong with looking up my 42-page backgrounder to the United States Presidential Election 2016 - as per the August 22nd (2016) 'edition' on my original blogsite, which for your info is

Http://Nuffsaid:Consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/)

****Till I locate said book (i.e. In God's Name) again, as that aspect is pretty well in the text's 'fine print', and highly unlikely to be otherwise accessible; indeed, going by the response at the time from the Vatican, they evidently believed Yallop to be personally 'indicting' themselves as the ultimate culprit (rather than some lesser known third party/nation), and naturally entirely dismissed his case.

Missing in Inaction - yet again. So where is the 'great and glorious' United Nations...when it comes to the Oppressed and Marginalized Uighurs and Falun Gong (followers) in Mainland China?

Apologies to a Uighur man I stumbled into at our local (Speight's) watering-hole awhile ago - and to local Falun Gong I've chatted with in Dunedin's Octagon - for taking so long to post this; although I believe I have made some, if relatively minimal, mention of their respective plights at the hands of the Chinese authorities (over recent weeks and months)...

For it to be the American Administration's *'Sam Busby' to be the one currently running with the 'issue' of China's shameful treatment of its (westernmost-dwelling) Muslim Uighur minority - let alone its beleaguered Falun Gong - and here I'll only make the briefest of mentions of its burgeoning and long-persecuted 'underground' Christian house church 'movement'; and who knows what will - sooner rather than later, methinks - become of the proudly liberty-loving Hong Kongians? - really says it all.

Yes, the Trump Administration can apparently never get anything right, according to the received 'wisdom' nightly proclaimed into Western living rooms via an oh so sanctimonious (yet itself morally dubious and double-standard ridden) mainstream media...

Criticized relentlessly by one and all - including, many a time, I'll freely admit, by Yours Truly - especially for 'messin' around', seemingly relentlessly, in everyone else's - every other nation's, that is - internal affairs and domestic political situation...

...and then when they take an isolationist stance - as aka Donald J Trump & Co - they're endlessly pilloried as well. No, they just can't win - while Trump's leadin' 'em, anyhow! - whichever way they cut it, or seek to slice and dice it...

But pray tell me, where are all the great, global champions of human rights now? And where, prithee, are all those self-obsessed 'cultural warriors' who love to champion outrage culture? 

Nowhere to be heard or seen, far as I can tell... -or, apologies: they're bending over backwards taking yet another 'selfie'...a metaphor for this self-obsessed 'Me not only 'Too', but first, last and always' generation if ever there were one...

So, all marks/plaudits to *'Mr Busby' et al - at least, and apparently unlike our own 'enlightened' (and  feted-to-the-rafters) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and her similarly-eulogized Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, or, for that matter, the severely overrated Jesuit French President Macron - they're (i.e. the Americans), however (majorly) belatedly, making some noise and bit of a song and dance over it...which is, as I say, a whole lot more than some (others)...

...conspicuous by their absence, or rather, dead silence thereabouts...    

But back to the U.N.: having, long since, dropped the ball (and then some) upon all manner of significant world 'hot-spots' with apparently 'intractable' dilemmas - be they

*the long-running Iran-Iraq War (of the nineteen-eighties) - yes, I bet you'd - long - forgotten that one (where lots of people lost their lives on both sides, I believe...

*Afghanistan (ever since the Soviet takeover in 1979/1980 or so)...

*the Rwandan and Serbian genocides/nineteen-nineties' ethnic cleansing in Serbia and Rwanda.

*the pitiful, pitiable, pitiless plight of Myanmar's [Burma's] Muslim Rohinja people.

*the longsuffering minions of Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria etcetera etcetera etcetera

...not to mention the apparently never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict...and how about the 'modern-day genocide' of Christians in their Middle East homeland, as Great Britain's (now doubtless) former Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, so valiantly helped bring to world attention a little while ago...?

Etcetera...almost ad infinitum, and certainly ad nauseum...

No, critique, criticize, lambast and pillory, castigate and condemn the ole U S of A as much as you want - and, yes, there's no shortage of examples and opportunities to do so these days...   

...including, believe it (or me) or otherwise, its record under the far-from-impeccable or morally unimpeachable former President Obama...be it that Middle East genocide, the Rohinja, Falun Gong, Wegas etc...let alone failing to bring the systemic American police department outrages to heel or account...

Yes, write off America as much or oftentimes as you like or so choose...

...but I'd respectfully suggest - much in the vein, evidently, and surprisingly enough to me, of Aotearoa-New Zealand's own three-term P.M. and United Nations #3 for awhile, Helen Clark - or in the vein of her own one-time caucus and cabinet member, the ofttimes recalcitrant (but admirably so in this pleb's view) now wannabe Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere...

From the - 'our'! -  United Nations we all need...a whole lot less hu-i, and a whole lot more 'do-ey'...and ipso pronto, asap...

...coz there ain't no time to lose, folks, there really ain't...

that is, if your incessant banging on about 'democracy' is really worth the lavatory paper it's written on...

*I'd certainly swear to that being his name, though despite reasonable efforts just now, there seems to be no easy, ready reference available on the net to who specifically this fellow (mentioned and shown upon a TV3 or TV1 nightly news segment) actually is..so you'll just have to trust me with this one...

Methinks The (British esp.) 'Intelligensia'/Mainstream Media Moguls - and Tory MP hangers-on - Doth Protest Altogether Too Much Entirely...and then some!

...but as a consequence, they've convinced myself (and doubtless innumerable others) that...
they're completely wrong...

Sure, they're utterly terrified of being on the losing side, I mean, ye proverbial 'hiding to nothing'...

So, to take a step back (a mo), just prior to the results of the leadership ballot of the Tory rank and file for Great Britain's/the [Dis]United Kingdom's next Prime Minister being announced in the not too distant...

...let's briefly, as succinctly as this verbose individual knows how, 'compare apples with oranges', in this case the two remaining leadership contenders for the UK's top job...

On the one hand/side we have someone who's a polished political performer...though lately weirdly (visually) reminiscent of a certain former recent Prime Minister...in terms of his (i.e. Tony Blair's) 'demon eyes'...as he clearly seemed to have done a facial 'makeover' in prep for this major contest.

This (like so many others, *conveniently) recent convert to the United Kingdom exiting the European Union, has shown himself a sure, steady and sensible hand in other matters, in particular his entrusted portfolio of foreign affairs, both with the recent on-again, off-again Iranian crisis...

...and especially with his speedy and courageous response to the genocide of Christians in the Middle East, of/about which I blogposted in detail some (number of) weeks/months back...

And so if for that one reason alone I'd personally give Jeremy Hunt the benefit of the doubt...

*Though perhaps that is unfair. For in the aftermath of the referendum result of June 23rd, 2016 it was surely right - if democracy means anything at all to one and isn't merely a useful, politically expedient catchphrase and piece of jargon one bandies about every election cycle then relegates to the backburner once the electors are no longer breathing down one's neck -  of Conservative Party ministers and MPs to get behind the mandate entrusted to them by the peoples of the British Isles.

And therefore to 'back Brexit'. In any case, as the great Winston Churchill 'rejoined' to an opposition politician who pointed out to him that Churchill'd adopted a different position to an earlier one he'd held - **"And what, prithee, do you do sir when you get new [more pertinent and convincing] facts [upon a particular matter]?"

And meanwhile, in the other, opposite corner stands, every bit the bulldog, schoolyard scrapper that he is, one former London mayor, Boris Johnson...

What can we say? Most has supposedly already - long since - been said, and it clearly ain't pretty!

No, this ain't ye average, run-of-the-mill, superbly airbrushed political wannabe...freshly minted, scented and perfumed, emerging from the shower for some modern-era cutesy-wootsey palaver...

Stumbling, bumbling, 'take-me-as-you-find-me', irascible and endearing, good ole Boris...

...prepared to go all the way with the electoral mandate delivered by Britons on June 23rd, 2016 ...whatever the cost...and whatever the flack from the EU Pontificate...

to fulfil - to the letter - the true meaning/essence of that fragile 'thing' so meaninglessly bandied about and arguably employed as a cynical ploy by one and all, especially the mainstream media, Political Punditry Incorporated, and the Sophisticated Set, whenever it so happens to suit their particular political purposes...

Of what do I so speak? Oh, a little thing called democracy...

And so, for what it's worth - yes, and despite him having words with his partner, yes, and despite his refusing to buy in to the media game of feeling compelled to discuss personal/private matters with the inquisitive, in-your-face media - such as those, for instance, who for years actively covered up a serial paedophile, yet were unafraid of pursuing and persecuting a number of high-profile folk whose lives were effectively torn inside out if not wrecked with nothing proven, but rather the reverse -

my money's on Boris...and yes, describing the hijab in the way he did ain't no hanging offence...

Give me a true, warts 'n all democrat anyway over a mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy clone...

No, Foreign Secretary Hunt in his undeniably honourable heart of hearts may not deserve those high epithets, but sadly he has temporarily lost sight of, even momentarily subsumed such worthy and noble qualities in the quest to lead the once great nation of Britain...to others (his newfound acolytes and assorted hangers-on) who doubtless deserve those aforementioned epithets a whole lot more...

But grandstand as various 'respectable as' U K Government Ministers might well now do, as they seemingly fall all over themselves in an unholy scramble and even scrabble to outdo each other in a desperate and misguided bid to distance themselves as fast, furiously and thoroughly as possible from both Boris and the Brexit - in particular, the 'when push comes to shove', last best hope of a 'No Deal crash out' that pretty well looks to be the only real way the British will to brexit will ever actually be realized...

...my money's on the people's choice - that of the British people, that is, not so much that of the rank and file of the British Conservative Party, who as has oft been stated constitute only around .26% or so of the British electorate - those who voted in a well-canvassed referendum with a long-running lead-up...

to leave the European Union...

End of story - or, to use my original blogsite's inimitable subtitle: Nuff Said.

Yes, the people have spoken...long since...and in case you're still wonderin' about it...

it's a little thing called democracy, folks...and it means that the people themselves, not those who patronizingly, condescendingly believe they know what's best for everyone else and feel fit to decide for everyone else, ultimately decide...

...hey, that is, unless you're really a secret believer in and follower of Big Brother...

who, as I've of late been voraciously rereading *George Orwell's ever-acclaimed 1984, also featured a fellow by the name of Winston, who became BB's inveterate enemy and foe...

*Eric Blair in real life, and no, in case you're understandably wondering, no relative of that other 'outstanding' champion of true democracy...who was awhile ago, at a major public inquiry into the lead-up to the Iraq War, exposed - in the view of many - as a flat-out liar, like his American fellow-traveller in belligerence, 'George Dubya'...

**Admittedly a rather awful 'transliteration' of Sir Winston's famous utterance, which I'll correct when I locate my (literary) reference thereto...

As her significant, lengthy tenure draws to a close, Angela Merkel gives a fitting tribute to some true German patriots of yesteryear...

To wit, the various would-be assassins of the likes of Adolf Hitler - doubtless including such well-known Nazi-era dissidents as Dietrich Bonhoeffer...

They took a moral stand, despite the risks involved, which saw them [summarily] executed in [WW11's aftermath].

Pretty well says it all, doesn't it...

Postscript:

But sadly enough, as anyone following recent events in France (and Germany) - and throughout Europe - would well know, the scourge of anti-semitism is again well and truly on the rise...

...and by no means from the so-called 'far right' alone...

Whilst Some Other ('100%') Muslim Nations - such as Morocco - are an Exemplar of Nobility and Justice...

Yes, the death penalty is a form of archaic, very rough justice, and no, I don't tend to support it...

...but what else do the three nasty fiends - convicted of the ghastly, brutal and callous beheading/decapitation, Sissii Internationale style, of two young Scandinavian backpackers hiking in the Atlas Mountains, otherwise 'deserve', who've just had that sentence handed down to them by Morocco's highest court?

Apparently aided and abetted by a fourth suspect who initially got away, who'll serve lifetime imprisonment, alongside - can you believe it - nineteen others who were considered 'accomplices' to the crime, I mean, act of utter barbarity...

These'll evidently receive between five and thirty years each for their ignoble, ignominious part in the whole sordid 'spectacle', which for matters of good taste and decency I'll spare you the grim and gruesome details of...

Apparently what occurred was so despicably dreadful that even Sissii Internationale themselves were horrified/disgusted, and, in a rather unusual 'move', failed to endorse those involved as in any way a part of their outfit. Though they were verily not officially/formally a part of SI, its' own refusal to back up the various 'actors' involved - after the fact, as they almost invariably do - surely bespeaks the setting of yet another new and awful low in the unbridled unleashing of all the worst elements in unregenerate human nature... 

Speaking of Said Geopolitical Tensions Seemingly on Every Hand, it's not just the United States of America Spoiling for a(n inevitably major) Middle East Confrontation/'Clash of Civilizations', Evidently...

No, the geopolitically significant modern-day nation of Iran, successor (many millennia on) to the once great and glorious second major world empire of Medo-Persia, itself seems to have suddenly assumed - some would say legitimately enough following on from continually ratcheted up provocation from the likes of the Trump Administration's Mike Pompeo and John Bolton - about whom Trump's made no bones, over recent weeks, as to their hawklike tendencies -

the role of *agent provocateur...vis-a-vis British oil tankers in the Gulf in particular....

But where will it all end, any reasonable person must ask, if not in a rather cataclysmic war for one and all?

*Obviously meaning 'agent of provocation' in this context, though admittedly my beloved Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge:1988) gives a somewhat different definition.

And Speaking of Simply Incredible, and Surely Quite Undeserved, Embodiments of Graciousness...

...one can hardly bypass those who attended the special conference on global religious liberty in Washington D.C. three days ago, an event hosted by the American State Department, thanks to the well-executed efforts of the Trump Administration's (roving) International Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback...

...and in particular a survivor of our (New Zealand's) horrific mosques' shootings/massacre March 15.

Farid Ahmed spoke eloquently - even just by his presence there - and though there would surely have been gasps of shock and horror from some of the mainstream Western media present, let alone their political standard-bearers in the never-ending anti-Trump crusades and demands for almost vigilante justice to be meted out to him (and all his Administration) forthwith, no ifs, buts or maybes involved,

Ahmed surely said it all, speaking for reasonable people everywhere, including the vast majority of peaceful, 'live and let live' Muslims worldwide...

...and came across (in the televised newsclip I witnessed at least twice) as absolutely genuine and heartfelt in his address to President Trump...

...and to his great credit the President responded in kind, in words of superlative and undeniably genuine, heartfelt sentiment as well...

A rare moment and glimpse/snapshot of 'peace and goodwill on earth' against a worrisome backdrop of ever-escalating tensions and trouble on every side, pretty well wherever one chances to look...

Speaking of Close Defeats and/or Being Unceremoniously 'Pipped at the Posts'...

...let me, very succinctly, here and now, put in a word - my two cents' worth - over the loss of/by my hometown Dunedin, in Aotearoa-New Zealand, vis-a-vis its suddenly losing its longterm status of having/possessing the world's steepest street...

Said status having now been 'reallocated' to some unpronounceable part of Wales - to a (similarly) nice little community, I've little doubt - let me simply say, as a one-time driver around those parts of town, and as I relayed to a local newspaper columnist/reporter the other day following this announcement by the Guinness Book of Records...

I've got it on good, reputable anecdotal authority that a street just a couple over from Baldwin - though overall not as steep as Baldwin Street, has a steeper gradient (at the very top)...

Its' name? Dalmeny Street, in North-east Valley.

And though it's now thirty-some years, almost exactly, since I myself drove upon it (and Baldwin St), I can vouch that it could well be steeper, yes, potentially so, than even this recent Welsh upstart...

So there - eat yer hearts out, my Celtic cousins!

On That Matter of "Paying one's money and taking one's choice", as my ole Dad used to say...

-taking a brief but necessary break from my running series (on abortion/euthanasia et al), in regards to a matter I concluded with the other day...which gives me a useful segway...

all hats off (whatever their colours, shades or hues) to New Zealand's Black Caps...for their superlative, inimitable graciousness in defeat...or should I say, snatched/thwarted victory.

No, I don't intend to relitigate whether they ultimately snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, or, moreover, had that brought/forced upon them even by an unfair umpire's decision or the like...

and personally, I believe they well understood all the fine-print(ed) 'terms and conditions' of such a global tournament long prior to entering (either this time or on numerous previous occasions), and anyhow, rewarding one team (in a tie-bind) for having scored more boundaries/sixes/grandstand hits than the other doesn't strike me as especially unfair...

...probably coz I'm somewhat biased in having my (memorable) introduction to cricket in those grand one day matches back in the early eighties when David Gower and Ian Botham were fronting for England upon a New Zealand tour, I believe, and facing off against the likes of NZ's Martin Crowe (and Martin Snedden?) who was/were regularly knocking balls into and beyond the grandstand in an extraordinary bout of sixes which made the matches something quite out of the ordinary for this then newbie cricket fan...

That having been put/placed upon the record, I can yet feel for their split-hair loss - after such a riveting and back and forth, up and down game that though I didn't stay up to watch, snatched surprisingly pivotal moments as I couldn't sleep and/or awoke regularly throughout the night...

...and moreover can still concur with the sentiments of long-time cricket devotee Basil Fawlty (I mean John Cleese), whose 'twitter' recently pretty well summed up the situation for many of us, whether in God's Own or in the U K itself, I can well imagine...

Yes, ideally the verdict would've been a tie and a shared victory and prize - and surely both sides equally deserved such, not only for the match's photo finish but for such equally admirable performances throughout -

but above and beyond such understandably patriotic sentiments vis-a-vis NZ Inc...hands and gloves off and dutifully hurled into the air over the Black Caps' willingness to take it on the chin, to speak out so graciously in the immediate aftermath of the upset, and *moreover for being unwilling to receive a victory lap, as it were, upon their (then) imminent return to New Zealand, feeling it wasn't really warranted as they hadn't actually won (i.e. according to the actual agreed rules of the game).

Were such utter, selfless grace to mark our various other competitions in the modern era - including political ones - we'd doubtless be in much better shape as a (Western) society, eh... 

*For though it's quite an unusual thing to see in this era of shameless self-promoting one-upmanship, there's still a certain thing called the dignity of loss and not being made to feel special about something which in one's heart of hearts one feels, if not exactly ashamed about, deeply humiliated over...though if there were ever a case in which a 'losing team' needn't feel such, surely this was it.

Abortion - Euthanasia (Part 3): A Real Clayton's 'democracy': Hey, Bring On 'Democracy'...er, um, that is to say...whenever it delivers us precisely the particular result we were wanting in the first place...

There are - seemingly innumerable - politically inclined/motivated folk who 'just luv' democracy and everything associated with it...a system of political affairs whereby the [ever and endlessly eulogized] 'will of the people' is the end result...

...that is, I mean to say, whenever it happens to go the particular way they, in their heart of hearts, so wish...

Hey presto, as ye ole witchy-pooh might invoke that ancient incantation - abracadabra - there you have it folks! It's called/much better known...at least here 'down under' in these nether antipodean regions, anyhow...

as, voila: a clayton's democracy (no offence to various inlaws and outlaws who just so happen to share this as their lifelong surname!) Yes, as the old-fangled kiwi advertisement goes on to explicate: the democracy you get when you're not really getting a democracy...

And thus and so we readily see these days, whether the particular 'precipitating' issue/cause is, say,

tougher penalties for serious, egregious crime-doing, or to (dis)allow the parental smacking of kids,

the liberalization/decriminalization of laws pertaining to such disparate matters as same-sex marriage(s), cannabis smoking or just medical marijuana, euthanasia, abortion (and all the rest)

...or the ole perennial of water fluoridation...- heretofore using God's Own here as my chief focus, but expanding out into especially major Western nations worldwide, and thus incorporating such altogether different yet similarly contentious matters as Brexit (and American presidential elections)

the advocates/opponents of such tend to be extremely selective as to which particular electoral results they happen to believe are worthy of acceptance, and hence 'due and proper' legitimacy...

Yes, it's easy to support citizens' referenda, as long practiced and honed into something of an artform in the (seeming) national birthplace of such (Switzerland), or the (American) state of California...

when it all goes according to well-envisaged expectation and desired outcome...

while readily decrying those which just so happen to go against one's personal grain...

but folks, 'dat ain't da-mock-ra-see', if you'll excuse my pidgin English...

it's simply playing the game and accepting the rules when it all goes according to plan...

and then throwin' one's toys 'outta da cot' when(ever) it don't...

And so, though I'd be the first to concede that that doesn't always suit the particular side of the equation upon each and every one of the aforementioned issues - and so many others - that I personally happen to take...

it does strike me as much more common these days that the ones whose voices (and pens and mouses) are so specially strident for the time-honoured virtues of democracy...

seem to have a particular problem with, and get their sizeable knickers in the biggest and most complicated twists and knots, when they are presented with the reasonable enough expectation of meekly and humbly accepting the 'peoples' verdict'...

...when said 'verdict' goes against their particular prejudices...and, yes, pride...

...for I'd humbly submit that that is their especial problem at heart...  

Abortion - Euthanasia...(Part Two): So Why Shouldn't 'Health' Professionals Have Every Right in the World to Object to - and vote with their 'feet' (and hands) to refuse to 'Just go along', go along, go along with...this fundamental "betrayal of God's Gift of Life"?

Yep, it 'sure ain't sexy' these days to say/state, or even dare to suggest, that 'a person's a person no matter how small'...or infirm and otherwise incapable...

...but these were actually the very things for which guess which would-be European- and world-dominating regime was once so renowned - and notorious?

Yes, you modern Generation Xers, Ys and Zs...check up yer ole forlorn, dry and dusty history books and you'll soon, readily discover that none other than the Nazis of Hitler's Germany were 'streets ahead', if you so consider it, of today's teeny-bopper 'progressives'...

...in progressing measures to implement that saw countless numbers of mentally infirm, 'disabled', and other 'unwanted' folk given the very short shrift out of this worldly existence onto the literal scrapbin of history...

So propose whatever you so wish in order to dispose of those you consider surplus to requirements...

but let's not hear incessantly that these ideas are somehow or other 'progressive' and 'enlightened'...

for they are but a newfangled version of the eugenics practiced by what has been pretty well universally deemed this planet's most wicked and diabolical regime ever - end of story. 

Abortion - Euthanasia - Medical Marijuana: So the Hippocratic Oath has now become just another Ode to *Hypocrisy...

Who could possibly argue with/against the perceived need for, and apparent palliative - if not necessarily restorative - value of the latter? Who indeed? And this writer most certainly doesn't...

But what must surely strike the disinterested observer as more than a tad 'interesting' is how the debate upon all these 'issues of conscience' is gradually becoming blurred into a subsidiary but no less important one, which, in this particular context, is this:

Does one, in particular a medical professional, still have/possess the right to refuse to engage in - any - practice which she or he, for whatever reason whatsoever, happens to deem somehow or other incompatible with her or his 'moral compass'? 

For upon the ultimate outcome of such discussion/debate, some - such as myself, anyhow - would argue that the long-cherished principles once held to constitute the very heart of the democratic Westminster tradition depend.

What principles and/or long-held values, you question? After all, aren't we living in a new, modern as - even 'postmodern', and most definitely 'post-Christian' - era, one in which such old-fashioned notions no longer adhere...and even if they may for some, 'what's your truth ain't necessarily mine, and vica-versa'...?

Indeed...we do. More's the pity. But that ain't really the question I've posed or postulated. No, what I'm suggesting is simply that a person be allowed to live and behave **according to the particular (set of) moral values - 'moral compass' if you prefer - that s/he at heart, in her/his heart of hearts, adheres and subscribes to and fundamentally believes in...

...rather than those imposed 'top down' by a Big Brother - or is that Big Sister? - society that has long since eschewed (chewed up and contemptuously spat out) even the mere semblance of its one-time Judaeo-Christian heritage...

...all in the name of the goddess of moral relativism and secular humanism, whose especial enemy and foe is not really 'religion' in general, but most definitely Christianity (and Judaism) in particular.

That, I most respectfully suggest, is the moral conundrum of our own unique day and age, upon the eventual issue of which, as I've already suggested, the ultimate fate (and longevity) of our particular mode of 'civilization' depends...

...and sadly - for those (admittedly increasingly few so seriously 'benighted' folk such as myself) - the prospect ain't at all pretty...

No, as me 'ole mate Smeagol-Gollum would've been wont to 'commentate': "Theeze ain't decent [times]!"

And so the words of the Wise Master look set yet again to be - quite literally - fulfilled in our own day and age, words that relate to this very sort of time and moral conundrum many find themselves in. A time in which people will  - however reluctantly - be forced to choose between giving dutiful obeisance to a man-made system of things or to One Who is Unseen but no less Preeminently Real...

One, as the Hebrew prophet Daniel put things to ancient Babylon's King ***Belshazzar, the impious, blasphemous grandson and (eventual) monarchical successor to the Babylonian Empire's once proud but ultimately humbled, truly great, Yahweh-believing and extolling King Nebuchadnezzar (also known as Nebuchadrezzar), 'Who holds [our] breath in His hand and owns all [our] ways'...

And those much-ignored words (I referred to at the outset of the penultimate paragraph), detailing the day and age in which we are presently living and breathing? Ones which, were they given space within the public domain, would doubtless be as roundly ridiculed as Belshazzar (prematurely and stupidly) did the famous 'writing on the wall' (of the selfsame aforementioned All-Prescient One (in one of His pre-incarnation appearances), many would contend, or a very senior angel like Gabriel)?

One Himself the Butt and Target, the Object of unparallelled disdain, mockery, scorn and ridicule - and merciless scourging as portrayed so graphically and realistically in the cinematic 'The Passion of the Christ', as He made His made to Golgotha's tree, and there suffered further indignities and horrific, inhuman cruelties and barbarities - themselves, some convincingly argue, almost unnoticed in comparison with the intense psycho-emotional pain He experienced...

...undertaken vicariously on behalf of everyone who has ever lived, as he took upon Himself and absorbed into His very Being all the sins that had ever been or ever would be committed by the entire human race, and thereby experienced the turning away of His father's face, leading to His despairing cry, "My Father[Daddy], My Father[Daddy], why have You forsaken Me?"

Those (earlier) aforementioned words related not to the ghastly trampling of His precious body (and spiritual being) as just detailed, but rather to the trampling of the human conscience: something  foreseen from eternity past which would occur in the coming, world-ending 'Time of Tribulation' 'such as has never (before) been, not ever shall be (again)'...

a time in which Jesus warned His true followers:

...according to Matthew's gospel ('good news'):     ...according to Mark's gospel ('good news'):             
"Therefore when you see the                                "But when you see the 
'abomination of desolation,' spo-                          'abomination of desolation,' spo-
ken of by Daniel the prophet,                                ken of by Daniel the prophet,
standing in the holy place"                                    standing where it ought not" (let 
(whoever reads, let him under-                              the reader understand), then let
stand),

*****[and then take the appropriate action...             *****[everyone take the required course
ipso pronto, for there'll be no time                            of action, with the utmost urgency]...
to waste...at all]...

What can one possibly add to the Wonderful Counsellor's words, except to say - take heed! For all indications are that that fateful, apocalyptic time is a whole lot closer than we might imagine...

*By which I simply mean a thing one says or formally assents to - for the sake of public appearance(s), for instance, or to be accepted in some sort of organization or fraternity (such as the medical establishment) - but doesn't really, actually mean and/or subscribe to; and/or does so in the full knowledge that when push comes to shove one has no intention whatsoever of following through upon what such a stance necessarily demands (in practical, everyday life).

**But I need to immediately clarify that (upon due rereading and hindsight!), for taken in and of itself it's admittedly a somewhat incredible, even absurd thing to state. In so saying I'm speaking of convictions which don't automatically contradict, even flagrantly violate, the time-honoured norms of pretty well all civilized societies from time and immemorial...- i.e. such universally-held values as the utter sanctity of life, dignity of individuals, integrity of one's (pledged) word, property rights etcetera.

***Curiously enough, to repeat and confirm yet again the old maxim that truth is ever stranger than fiction, Nebuchadnezzar had himself rechristened Daniel 'Belteshazzar'...and his three mates, the three 'Hebrew worthies' as they're sometimes referred to - 'Hananiah, Mishael and ****Azariah' - 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego'...

****No, most definitely not 'blood sacrifice' or the like, as those who unworthily impugned the motives and reputation - but not the actual character - of Lindy Chamberlain and her then husband Michael back in Oz around 1980 or so claimed when alleging she'd killed her own baby...

*****According to the David Edwin Bernhardt paraphrase, that is...

To Be Continued (in relation to the issues of euthanasia and especially abortion, in NZ and Ireland)...either appended to this blogpost, or, more likely, in an entirely 'new' one, though the thoughts upon the abortion issue in the Irish Republic were actually scribbled out by me months ago.

A Great American Totara has fallen: Ross Perot - America's Greatest President who wasn't (to be) - departs this life (aged 89)

*Everyone, especially the liberal media/intelligentsia/political punditry, seem/s to be scrambling all over themselves to make  - wholly unsubstantiated and moreover unsubstantiable - comparisons between the late, great Mr Perot and their own pet hate, President Donald J Trump...

...but all such attempted comparisons fall apart - and miserably - at the veritable drop of a hat...

Sorry, folks, the two are not even in the same ballpark or upon the same (political) page: the calibre of their respective character is so diametrically dissonant that it's highly problematic as to whether one can even use the word 'character' in any proper discussion of 'the Donald'...

Reminding me of the rejoinder of/by the granddaughter (or grandson) of another one-time President: after an injudicious and self-important self-observation, if I remember rightly, by a former President (perhaps Bill Clinton) about himself/his presidency. S/he responded, in tones of the utmost irony (concerning this upstart's comparison of himself with the likes of (the character-laden - despite Hiroshima and Nagasaki, admittedly - and ever straight-shooting, true son of Missouri - like my beloved Granny) Harry Truman), with words very much like these:

"Sorry, sonny, my granddaddy had more integrity in his little finger than you [WJC] have in your entire body!" 

Sure, to a superficial mind or from a mere surface perspective - looking only upon the obvious external similarities: wealthy self-made businessmen of national/global empires...complete political outsiders and mavericks...presidential wannabes/'actualities'...there's a whole lot in common, indeed - but no, they are not, they are far from - in every other respect - 'birds of a feather' or any such thing.

Yet having stated all the foregoing, it's perhaps best to focus upon those few similarities at the outset.
In eschewing conventional politics and the traditional (**big party) route to political power, it's true that both Trump and Perot - much like their independent-minded, century-separated predecessor, the two-term (Republican Party) President and later significant third-party candidate Theodore Roosevelt, himself unquestionably was - are the very epitome of direct, straight-shooting, tell-it-as-it-is political speech and action... models of political populism, even honing this arguably to a political artform (and then some)...

Ross Perot's presidential candidacy was a memorable one, even had I not at that precise moment in time - during Perot's on-again, off-again presidential candidacy, that is - been on my way to America, and indeed well underway with what turned out to be an almost three-year sojourn in the land of my parents and other forebears...

Among other things no doubt, all and what I can specifically remember was his position on drug-pushers, the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, and the dire financial plight of American workers.
Refreshingly eschewing the traditional, "Isn't America the bee's knees, there's none other like us?" type of patriotic, gung-ho call to arms and downplaying of the very real issues within the body politic of "the world's greatest nation", Perot proposed (itemizing these three proposals from last to first):

#Equalizing American workers' wages with those of their European counterparts, or suchlike, at very least 'upping' 'em onto some sort of a realistic par... Can anyone (in the US of A, anyhow) ever forget the spectacle of the *****'diminutive' Perot holding up carefully-produced 'pie-charts' or the like showing the relatively abject position of Americans vis-a-vis said European compatriots?!?!?

#Exiting NAFTA, or, more precisely, if I recall rightly, not even entering it in the first place...

#Rounding up the 'drugees' (i.e. drug-pushers) sauntering back and forth across the U S's southern border... - yes, something about that does sound familiar; mind you, only to throw 'em in the slammer, not to leave them to die, much less to summarily execute them (in the modus operandi of Filipino President Deterte(sp?))...

Perot's drug-pusher stance earned him the undying enmity of urban and ever so urbane sophisticates, whilst his other two proposals - opposing that major free trade agreement in the interests of America Inc, whilst decrying the plight of American workers - certainly wouldn't have earned him any brownie points among the (relatively sizable) business class and right-of-centre voting 'bloc'.

Unfortunately - for the United States (and all of us worldwide, I suspect) - Perot's dropping out of the race a good way on, and then, relatively last-minute, coming back in, deflated his otherwise gradually gathering momentum and thus cost him in the election; perhaps indeed being one he could well have won...such was the quite understandable disaffection with the two establishment candidates (incoming President Clinton and the then President Bush Senior)...

Though a dual (kiwi-U S) citizen - evidently since President Ronald Reagan's Administration, or that of his immediate successor, George Herbert Walker Bush, relaxed the rules thereabouts - I somehow didn't realize I could vote (even offshore) at the time...

...but if I had, it most certainly wouldn't have been for either Bush nor for that matter his replacement, William Jefferson Clinton. No sirree, no way Jose. It'd have been, notwithstanding the longtime, outstanding U S consumer advocate and sometime presidential candidate Ralph Nader himself possibly standing (as far back as 1992; though I don't believe he did), for one particular candidate, and only that particular individual: yep, the great American Ross Perot.

Yes, at least vis-a-vis Perot and Trump, anyhow - though the comparison could doubtless be transferred on to Roosevelt as well - the two men have championed a non-business-as-usual, vigilante-style populism, aided and abetted by liberal doses of both charismatic manner and fluent/colourful speech/rhetorical flourish, whilst eschewing modern era, neo-liberal, 'supply side' Reaganomics and late 20th Century orthodox economics...

But there all comparisons fade into insignificance, I'd respectfully submit...

For Ross Perot - innovator extraordinaire, intellectual maverick, decent citizen and true patriot, and above all else true blue benefactor/philanthropist - stands in a league of his own, far above the inclement malaise inhabited by those other, pragmatism- and/or self-worshiping political figures...

A man - unlike ****all those aforementioned (Trump, Bush Senior, Bill Clinton) - who not only wouldn't have left Americans by and large embarrassed and shamefaced (Clinton and Trump for obvious reasons, need I detail that any further?) -

...while I also include Bush Senior, in terms of, if not his seemingly glowing legacy (read: the breakup of the entire Eastern Bloc/Soviet Union on/under his watch), but rather his much less than impressive track record (when examined carefully that is) - see a 'piece' (blogpost) I wrote upon him following his death awhile ago, entitled something along the lines of 'Speaking Badly of the Dead'...

...but would have indeed, verily made America great again...in reality not just in sloganeering...

*That is, to the extent they've even bothered to report upon it. Thus far, said pickings have been fairly few and far between (that is, upon New Zealand's broadcast (TV and radio) media), the only reference thereto thus far being a two minute at most commentary by some woman in the know this morning on BBC World Radio...(which of course isn't even kiwi-run much less -based).

**Yes, I well realize my comparisons quickly break down with Mr Trump, since everyone knows he became a Republican Party nominee and therefore 'Republican' President...yet as so many well know, ***in everything but name Donald Trump is anything but an orthodox/traditional Republican.

***End of story, except to add (as I am wont, and frankly can't help myself, being almost the author of the endlessly progressing 'postscript'), that this very thing - though already implicitly understood by any political junkie worth his or her salt - was stated way back when (prior to the 2016 American Presidential Election, I'm pretty sure) by RNZ National's Kathryn Ryan upon her weekday 'Nine to Noon' radio programme...

And, more importantly - from my perspective, anyhow - is incorporated within the text of an extensive, 42-page backgrounder to U S Election 2016 by Yours Truly...next to my 21/22-pager upon the election of the first (openly) Jesuit Pope in Vatican history, 'Pope Francis the First: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, or, 'Surprise, Surprise', Sheep in Wolf's Clothing?' (available only by post, incidentally, if you're really interested), probably my most thorough and carefully-researched, historically-situated, even, dare I say so or suggest it, inspired (but not in the biblical sense) 'opinion piece'...

The foregoing being the blogpost (approximately my 24th or 25th on that particular blogsite) dated August 22nd, 2016 - as I say, upon my now (in all but name and cybersphere 'situation') effectively defunct original blogsite

Http://Nuff Said: consideryourself-frombothsidesnow. blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).

****Yes, excluding (the first) President Roosevelt, who far as I can ascertain served America well, breaking up monopoly capitalism with a sledgehammer and leaving it with its unparallelled network of world-famous national parks, an environmental record leaving modern 'greenies' in the dust...

*****As described this morning (New Zealand time) by the aforementioned BBC correspondent. Evidently the precise same height as Yours Truly, '5 foot 6 (inches)' (in ye ole 'imperial measure'), though occasionally, when comparing and contrasting relative heights - but rarely weights! - with my older bro - either he or myself comes in at the marginally lesser '5 feet, 5-and-a-half inches'...

...but who's counting...?