Make No Mistake: The Real Anti-Democrats of our Present-day World...will sadly one day soon wreak their wayward will upon us all...and yet, horror of horrors, somehow or other really believe they're 'doing God's work' (upon earth)...

Of what do I specifically speak? Not of the fake news brigade now championed by the likes of Donald J Trump...-no, he's relatively small-fry in the overall scheme of things...

And in pinpointing the particular individual I am, and the specific movement she serves as a surprisingly powerful figurehead of and lightning rod for, I'm casting no aspersions upon her or its/their inner motives/motivations (far as these can be gleaned or discerned from the various public pronouncements et al regularly made upon major broadcast media)...

No, these may be - and doubtless oftentimes are - both quite admirable and even praiseworthy, but that's besides the point, far as I'm concerned anyhow...

...for as anyone even remotely familiar with human history well knows, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions', and being sincere is no protection from even the most gross or basest demagoguery.

No indeed. And thus and so this little posting is to declare - for those prepared to listen and take due heed, which admittedly and most likely will be precious few - that the mass hysteria (not being too strong a word to use, I do believe) being indulged in and whipped up by a sizable number of especially Western-based people...vis-a-vis global warming/climate change...

...is gonna end up nowhere good...and indeed somewhere quite bad...to the selfsame's everlasting regret...

Make no mistake: the global hysteria now being whipped up and fanned into fury over global warming/climate change...as witnessed throughout the West, including here in God's Own, as various local councils here and there throughout the land declare 'climate emergencies' while simultaneously calling upon everyone within range and earshot to stop, pay heed and respond accordingly...

...and as witnessed just the other day as 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg
arrived to a rapturous response as she addressed a large European audience somewhere...

...mixed up and confounded as it invariably is with the anti-democratic sentiments now gaining great ground/currency throughout the Western world - as seen in the various strands of anti-hate speech and ..../...... et al pejorative 'phobic' anathemas seriously doing the rounds all over the place - putting the metaphorical borax into and seeking to close down dissenting voices large and small (wherever these may be found)...

...will inevitably lead to and result in the long-prophesied global Sunday laws, originating in America and eventually spreading out from there worldwide...

...bringing on this Planet and its 7.5-8 billion inhabitants a crisis (of climate and everything else) all right, oh yes indeed...

...a 'time of trouble/tribulation' such as never was since there was a nation, nor ever shall be again...

But don't believe me, don't take my word for it, it's all there in the 'Good Book', especially in the books of Revelation and Daniel...for those who have (spiritual) ears to hear, and (spiritual) eyes to see, and (spiritual) hearts to understand...

...and willing and ready wills to obey and act - in harmony with divine leading and admonition...

...before it's forever too late...

For it will [most assuredly] come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Nuff said - that's all she [or rather the Holy Spirit through God's penmen and women] wrote, folks!

Yet, Praise the LORD...He's Answered Prayer for Puerto Rico!

Yes, in answer to the earnest, fervent prayer(fulness) of not only *myself, but doubtless innumerable others...Hurricane Dorian, now downgraded to a category one tropical storm/cyclone, has apparently "bypassed the [longsuffering] island of Puerto Rico" (as reported upon NZ media this afternoon)...

...and that despite the awful, worst wishes of a certain President Trump...

Hooray! Hallelujah!

*And no, I don't put the miracle down to **me, myself and I...but I do believe in a miracle-working God, Who, in response to the earnest, heartfelt prayers of His earthly children, can and often does - even in this our own most secular of days - intervene on behalf of His own...

For "Amidst the tumult of this world He guards His children still."

**However on this occasion, in light of the tragedy that afflicted Puerto Ricans not all that long back, and in view of the heartless reaction/response then and thereafter of a certain American President - and his most sycophantic of supporters and cabinet appointees - whenever the mention of the Caribbean island has been made over recent days (perhaps three to four times in my hearing), the thought has repeatedly come to me to plead with God for the said tropical cyclone to bypass them...

...and yes, that was even the very language used in said news item earlier today...

Postscript:
Having myself only just begun my three-year sojourn to the US of A when Hurricane Andrew hit Miami and headed towards New Orleans (where I'd only just arrived), I still distinctly recall the palpable sense of relief me and my fellow backpackers felt when it took a detour and missed us by around 67 or 69 kilometres (to sweep up aways inland through the heartland of Louisiana)...

...sadly, thirteen years before Hurricane Katrina itself struck, utterly devastating New Orleans... 

The Forests are Aflame...Homo 'Sapiens' Ought to Know Better (if it's really such a 'wise, 'evolved' species): O, Dear LORD, Please Save the Amazon, Before It's Forever Too Late...

'Bojo' "Riding Roughshod over Democracy"? Yeah, right!

So say the hordes of the media commentariat egged on by and/or egging on their political standard-bearers, all alike now out in force to stick it verbally (and in every other way) to *the fella who they see as the 'Old Country's' version of U S President Trump...

But can we, can anybody really take them at all seriously? I mean,

...seeing as it's the selfsame people who didn't like - who simply couldn't abide or stomach - the way 'democracy' panned out (in practice) the first time around, aka The Brexit Referendum (of June 23rd, 2016). Yes, these democrats are now - by and large, give or take a few somewhat more or less anti- or pro- voices here and there - calling for, nay, verily demanding a second-take on democracy...

...aka a Second Referendum upon the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union.

Hey, you be the judge...

...but from this particular punter's perspective and vantage-point, I reckon these believers in democracy and all the finest traditions of Westminster governance over the centuries...such as Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon among others...

...actually believe not in classic textbook 'democracy' as such/per se, but in what we here in kiwiland might well call a ***'clayton's democracy'...democracy when it suits you or your own personal agenda - stuff what the voters themselves might have happened to choose or vote for!

And as for celebrityville - and ****not all ever and only take their cues from the standard political playbook of the middle-class, professional set, socially radical and elitist chardonnay socialists currently running left-wing politics throughout the West - so Hugh Grant simply cannot contain himself (and his language) and tells P M Johnson where to get off in no uncertain terms and very short order?

Declaring moreover that Johnson was effectively highjacking the 'democracy' his grandfathers had fought two world wars to defend and protect. Really? How about the 'right' of the people themselves to decide and choose? For last I heard a clear majority (52:48) voted to leave the EU.

Pretty basic stuff, I reckon, and after all, general elections have been won and lost upon far tinier margins (on many an occasion). And it's no use, there's simply no point in now - long after the fact -crying over spilt milk; and of revisiting the result and declaring - however worthwhile-sounding the argument, and it certainly isn't without merit in general - that constitutional changes should require much larger margins to pass (to change the particular status quo of the day).

Sorry, you're way too late for that by this stage, the rules of the game were long ago set way back when the United Kingdom voted to enter the Common Market and European Union in the 1970s and 1980s...

No, the various on-the-street surveys of the British populace conducted over recent hours - whether in the likes of the classic Stratford-on-Avon, in the Midlands and/or the northern industrial heartland pretty much tell the same old story. Britons just want the Government "to get on with Brexit", believe moreover that BJ, by taking "decisive action" is simply "delivering what the voters chose the first time round", and to the great, undying chagrin and dismay and even unmitigated outrage of the elite class, are generally-speaking "supporting (Boris Johnson et al) doing whatever it takes to deliver the peoples' own choice" (i.e. as declared in the June 23rd, 2016 referendum result).

To employ (and tweak) the words of an ex-Briton, himself a one-time and three term-serving deputy Prime Minister in Godzone: we (the) Brexiters won, you (Bremainers) lost...now get over it! 

*No guessing who I mean, obviously British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a person nicknamed with the only too convenient **acronymic/acronymous 'Bojo' by detractors (and doubtless even some admirers) worldwide...

**Again, utilizing me trusty ole Chambers Concise Dictionary...

***As I've long since written screeds upon - including using this very term - both back in January and ever since the historic referendum result back in mid-2016.

****See for example such timeless greats as Basil Fawlty (i.e. John Cleese) and Gimli (John Rhys-Jones) among others...

*Torn Between Two Opposing Perspectives: You simply **can't have your cake and eat it too, Prime Minister -Yet, You've simply got to hand it to Jacinda, Aotearoa-New Zealand's P.M. : ***SYNTHESIS: Please all ye do-gooders, stop being incessantly outraged and offence-prone on ****others' behalf -already!

As can be reasonably and rightly suspected/surmised, today's offering vis-a-vis New Zealand's popular as Prime Minister (certainly abroad, but also at home) is a tale of two halves...the first (as per my title) scribbled out furiously (both in speed and sentiment) a couple weeks ago (sometime around/after the 1st of August)...the second part penned first thing this morning (or was it after RNZ National's weekend 'Media Watch' programme between 9.05. and 9.35?) ...

Whichever. The point essentially being - as is perhaps obvious - that our evaluation of certain political personages can change from day to day, let alone week to week...if we're deadly honest with ourselves; that is, unless we're amongst that sorry subset of politically partisan paratroopers who maintain a zealous if misguided loyalty - come hell or preferably high tide - to the particular tribe, and accordingly its leadership, we most readily associate with and whose policies we most closely subscribe to.

Sad, in my view anyway, seeing as it tends to mean we readily check our brain cells out and (at least verbally) fight to the death whenever there happens to be some sort of legitimate contention over something or other that personality has said, irrespective of how we might normally regard that selfsame sort of utterance if made by someone else (especially someone we tend to like much less).

But c'est la vie, as they say, or welcome to Realpolitik as per the first half of the 21st Century...

So, for my earlier (more negative) comments first. Perhaps indeed, as the conclusion of my blogpost title suggests, my real beef even then was not with the P.M. herself as such, but rather with her spokespeople, or at least those who so deemed themselves...

So, having started at the end, and rather painstakingly worked myself back to the beginning, and back again - and your own 'good' selves doubtless around the very bend by this time - let me begin at the beginning (which is always a perfectly good idea)...

My remarks then, as per today's, relate to the way certain high-profile kiwi (and Australian) politicoes, as well as Aussie media moguls, personalities and associated grandstanders incorporated...have been rather unsparing in their caustic criticisms of late vis-a-vis our 'celebrity P.M.', Jacinda Ardern...indeed, some would justifiably argue, have even gone way off the deep end...

So without further ado, the following are my comments scribbled three-four weeks back thereabouts:

For her (i.e the Prime Minister) to pretend that it's essentially 'below the belt' for National leader Simon Bridges and MPs to - in this case very softly-softly (and even meekly and mildly), I'd respectfully suggest - accuse the PM of "being a part-time Prime Minister", and thus characterize this comment as itself being inherently sexist (or somehow misogynistic) is so ridiculous in my view as to be patently laughable...

For, first of all, it's reading into those comments what they'd wish he'd said and moreover meant - i.e. that rather than having a well-earned dig at a matter of ongoing and quite legitimate controversy, i.e. Ms Ardern's many and *****varied trips overseas of recent times (and often for fairly extensive periods at that, not only for arguably well-deserved r & r), Bridges et al was/were somehow zeroing in on the PM's well-known status as the first ever national leader - aside from Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto I believe - to have a baby whilst in office...and thus making a backhanded jab at her by so saying...

...whereas there's really no reason to suspect, if anything, he'd have been so politically naive and dopey to do that (and thus cause an instant stink and outrage), though the ease with which casual onlookers could conflate the two seems like it ought to have at least occurred to such a high-profile politico (as Mr Bridges), you'd think...

But back to the P.M. herself, or at least those protesting - methinks much too much - on her behalf: you can hardly use for your political advantage - milk for every last ounce of 'white gold' one can manage to squeeze out, literally to the very cows come home (to be cute about mixing my metaphors) - the fact/status of being the first ever pregnant/birthing kiwi leader (and second globally)...

...talking said 'unique' status up for all its worth...and then get awfully high and mighty, even super-sensitively precious, when that very 'claim to fame' is (however inadvertently) twisted and used against you...

No, Bridges' et al's remarks were quite obviously directed at the P.M.'s 'swanning around the Pacific' while many perceived NZ Inc 'going to hell in a handbasket'...and, as I footnote way below, when despite this frenetic schedule of overseas visitation she apparently couldn't find it in said itinerary to fit in a well-signposted commemoration for what was arguably one of the most important geo-political events of the last century, the beginning of the end of the Second World War...

...when clearly the stakes were infinitely higher than those even of an evil-hearted gunman who went rampant awhile ago causing such senseless carnage and heartache in and around Christchurch's two mosques.

Epilog: Due acknowledgements here to:

*Taken (admittedly quite implicitly and  unconsciously even) from the title to that classic song, 'Torn Between Two Lovers', made so justly famous because of its exquisite rendering by that exceptional Australian singing talent Olivia Newton-John, apparently deteriorating these days upon her lifestyle ranch in California...

**Richard Welch, the man who served as a great father figure and role model to myself and my younger sister especially, following our parents' divorce during our pre-teens way back when, was the first person I ever heard this painful truism from...

***The word coined by Karl Marx and later political philosopher Hegel in their interpretation of historical 'progressions' from one particular mode of society to another, such as feudalism to capitalism to communism (or suchlike - please don't quote me on the specifics these days...though now I think about it, I did only recently manage to stumble across the essay in which I enunciated this particular concept, so perhaps I ought to defer to the same in the not too distant.)

****Which admittedly is contrary to my own sense of offence (as cited in a blogpost just the other day) vis-a-vis Parliament's Speaker and Andrew Little's comment effectively slurring - certain unspecified - previous Act NZ members of Parliament as fascist... Simply proving once again how difficult it is at times to be 100% consistent upon such matters, there - legitimately - being all manner of minor and not-so-minor nuances upon various subjects which require lateral thinking and the like...

...or perhaps that's just my own especial(ly creative) way of wheedling myself out of a not too comfy spot of seeming hypocrisy or at the least gross inconsistency!

*****Including one in particular she didn't take, i.e. the - well-publicized long in advance - DD  Commemorations in Europe for the 75th anniversary of those epochal 20th Century events...about which non-attendance I find myself once again uncomfortably agreeing with Mike Hosking about...

Part Two: To Be Continued Tomorrow (or the day or two after!)

Just to say (as I'd meant to on Sunday)...

You've really got to hand it to Jacinda - yes, here we're all on first name terms with our current leader - Ardern, Aotearoa-New Zealand's Prime Minister: once again she has struck precisely the right note, and made exactly the right response, to the ganging-up of various Aussie blowhards against her.

As with National leader Simon Bridges' own comment (as above) about Ardern being a part-time leader, she ever so adroitly but naturally - I for one don't believe it's a deliberate, Machiavellian-style political tactic, but rather emanating from the nobility of  her character; though if I ever discovered it were (the former), yes, it'd completely reverse this punter's view of her, that's for sure - deflected/ parried aside any 're-active' response, indeed steering well clear of the usual manufactured outrage culture response seeming to enshroud and envelop and tighten the stranglehold upon - even arguably putting the finishing touches upon - what many see as a (Western) culture in its final death-throes, like ancient Rome approaching its ultimate demise in the late 400s/500s a.d. (or whenever it was)...

When Will All The Madness Cease...When Will It Ever End? The answer, my friend, is burning in The Amazon, the answer is burning in the Amazon...

or, Asphyxiating the Lungs of the World: Deliberately Lit Amazonian Forest Fires Look Set to Finish Off What Philip Morris, Pall Mall, Marlboro, Rothmans et al have long since begun... 

And Speakin' of Hissy-fits, real full-blown Temper Tantrums...Palestinian-American Roshida Tlaib Wins Hands-Down - It Ain't Even a Contest, Folks!

Or: How Making a Major, Virtue-Signalling Political Stunt Apparently Trumps Filial Duty To One's Dying Grandmother: or, How 'the Squad's - or, more aptly, the Four Stooges' - Base Act of Discourteously Rebuffing Generous Israeli Gesture Reveals Heart-Motivation of Some Modern-day Jew-Haters

Roshida Tlaib's symbolic act of defiance last weekend must surely 'take the cake' - or rather the putrid leftovers - for a squalid piece of self-serving, self-justifying political theatre...

...putting even 'the Donald' in a comparatively favourable light for a change...

...unless, that is, you happen to believe that it's more important in life to ever and only be a vehicle of impurely partisan ideological warfare as opposed to holding some more basic, time-honoured and noble values at the very heart of one's life purpose and expression...

Yes, you've guessed correctly, this latest political stunt by one of the Squad only evidences Tlaib's personal immaturity and even deficiency of certain critical character values...-and for such principled Democrats as (if I'm not mistaken) the eminent Bernie Sanders to be publicly backing her stand is, I feel, rather regrettable and unfortunate, to say the least...

To Be Continued following some critical(ly early) shuteye...

And Upon That Oh So Cherished Principle of Liberty...

...what a shameful misperformance this afternoon by an otherwise excellent Speaker of Parliament. The Right Honourable Trevor Mallard, former (longserving) member for Upper Hutt, and despite the (publicly-aired) views of many, especially the current National Party Opposition, has thus far and however unorthodox his approach upon many an occasion, been - I believe - holding a flexible yet steady ship in the halls of Parliament...

But to refuse to insist that a member - in fact, Justice Minister Andrew Little, I believe (someone who should surely know much better) who used the word 'fascist' in reference to various miscellaneous past parliamentarians, especially evidently some ACT NZ ones - needn't do the usual right and proper thing, i.e. withdraw and apologize thereabouts...

...is simply incomprehensible, casting as it does needless aspersions and unsavoury reflection upon folk whom Act leader David Seymour characterized as worthy of due honour...

And for NZ First, Labour and Green members presently in the chamber to refuse to challenge Mr Mallard in so doing gives their own sanction of approval to such an unworthy misdeed, thereby making them all effectively complicit...

In this one instance anyhow - and indeed upon similar issues of freedom of speech in recent times - Mr Seymour has stood in defence of a time-honoured principle of our proud Westminster tradition, while other members - including National Party members now that I think of it; unless Gerry Brownlie challenged the Speaker's ruling/determination - were evidently nowhere to be seen... 

And to think of the sort of trivial instances constantly appearing in the news media these days; and the hissy fits that some folk seem to constantly be having over such.... 

Beware of Disturbing the Sleeping Dragon, Behold - it awakes!

My only cryptic comments vis-a-vis the recent events in Hong Kong...following the ghastly violence. But methinks all may well not be quite what it appears...and that, just as an emailer queried yesterday's RNZ National Radio Panel - and as this particular punter anyhow has long since well suspected - there may indeed be secret Chinese plants/agitators/*'agitprops' even amidst the riotous protestors who've been wreaking merry mayhem throughout the territory, including especially at their well-traversed international airport of late...

Thankfully the people (1.7 million odd of them, anyhow) turned out en masse the other day to defend their cherished, longstanding democratic traditions...

Hong Kongers certainly put today's complacent Westerners to shame, many of whom these days apparently have no idea, no clue whatsoever of what the 'democracy' their forefathers fought so hard to defend in WW11 is all about, and sadly no intention evidently to find out...

But the people of Hong Kong are jealously guarding - at great cost - that precious hand-me-down, and are thus a wonderful example to us here in NZ and elsewhere; and quite frankly a stern, severe rebuke to us in our endemic apathy...

**Long may that continue...

*A great little word borrowed from the recesses of my memory (of Soviet-era communism); or - of very recent times - one of the numerous unbelievably inventive and memorable terms created/coined
by George Orwell in his inimitable classic of 20th Century literature, 1984; a book, incidentally, becoming all the more relevant and poignant by the year...

Which, according to my handy 'ole Chambers Concise Dictionary, is defined as: '(department, person, engaged in) agitation and propaganda, esp. pro-communist.'

On that matter - i.e. parallels and resonances with Orwell's dystopian future - it occurred to me the other day, whilst reflecting upon the ongoing unrest and tumultuous events in Hong Kong, that the occasional references to it being a leaderless uprising corresponded precisely to not only that ***brilliant line in Peter Jackson et al's cinematic remake of J R R Tolkien's own classic Lord of the Rings trilogy, but indeed the very modus operandi of the resistance movement in 1984...leaving one to wonder whether or not some sage somewhere borrowed that idea deliberately - or even subconsciously, having read and reread the foregoing over the years - from Orwell's own 'playbook'...

**No, I don't mean (and am not including) kiwis' aforementioned apathy!

***I.e. probably by Gimli (John Rhys-Jones) about the orcs, I recollect, being "a leaderless rabble."

P.S. Refer to my earlier blogpost a little while ago for more on the subject...

P.P.S. And on a not altogether unrelated matter, I was heartened this evening in inadvertently reading a news release while roving here and there on the web, stumbling upon the following little snippet on my computer whilst awaiting a highly inconvenient and uninvited update:*Qatar Withdraws Support of China Over Its Treatment of Muslims'(i.e. the concentration-camped Uighurs) [Bloomberg]

Oh that the 'democratic West' would be so brave, even reckless in their support for liberty!

Covering off a couple other items all too inadvertently relegated and consigned to obscurity of late...

Pertaining to Mauritania, India and Pakistan...and Germany, Canada and New Zealand...

[Apologies for any lack of overall coherence within this blogpost (as per Sunday's), but time, as they say, waits for no-one...]

#Congrats to the Mauritanian Supreme Court or Court of Appeal for releasing a longserving prisoner convicted on blasphemy accusations, though he's now evidently in his very senior years...-similar to the Pakistani lady (Ayleen? Noriya?) whose name I've presently forgotten...and hopefully the LORD above will protect him from the vigilante justice doubtless so often meted out upon the same either prior to (trumped-up) conviction or following hard-fought-for and eventual release...

#Congrats to India for awhile ago (within recent weeks) voting to ban the easy divorce provisions allowed for amongst its (presumably most) fundamentalist (subset of its) Muslim population...though evidently by only the narrowest of margins in its Upper House...-provisions which eerily recalled those with which Jesus was personally confronted by the various religious leaders and national rulers during His own briefly sojourn...folk only too prepared to utilize any and every possible religious expedient and pretext for effectively doing anything they actually wanted to do anyway...

#Naturally hoping - wishing - (and oughta be) prayin' - that the new standoff between India and (its one-time *'massive geographical province') Pakistan, over the disputed Indian region of Kashmir - is settled and settled quick. But I agree with kiwi academic Al Gillespie that India indeed has every (legal) right to do **'whatever it wants' within part of its own sovereign territory. However, as with the eventual outworking of Brexit - if it does indeed transpire - doing something you've 'every right to' can no doubt have many unforeseen and unintended consequences...

...and obviously a military conflict between these two nuclear weapon-possessing neighbours is not one anyone would really like to contemplate...

*For want of a suitable term, words - as ever - completely failing me once again...

**Obviously 'within reason', and no, those weren't his precise words as such...

Part Two: Germany - Canada - New Zealand (coming your way soon)

Bits 'n Bobs 'bout this, that, and, yes, of course, especially 'the other'...

Having long since *fallen woefully behind all manner of commentaries upon all manner of matters, this is 'simply' to quickly 'cover off' a couple of items long since past their **'currency' as topics of present moment...before they get lost in the swamp of memory loss with all the succeeding items that continually confront, rattle and/or otherwise 'besiege' me in this unique age of information overload...

The more ***'minor' matters first - at least in terms of earth-shattering importance and/or overall significance in the scheme of things - so I can get stuck into some more meaty matters of moment...
(though, yes, one person's molehill is another person's mountain, and vica-versa) - some of which, I'll ruefully admit, may well extend back as much as six - though the 'major' ones, but two - weeks.

I'll start upon a lighter note, seeing as so much of what we're constantly confronted with these days is anything but...

#Congrats to the seagull - though I hate/detest/loathe the entire species (of NZ gull, anyhow) - which seized a little chihuahua in its beak and made off into the sky with its newfound treasure-trove...!!!

Yes, I know schadenfreude is a sinful attitude to take to anybody in any circumstances, but I must confess a wry smile and chuckle when I heard this BBC News item's mentioning of a hapless (British?) lady/couple in great anxiety thereabouts, perhaps because I've known of many such doggies, and no, though a close acquaintance might be surprised to hear me say so, let's just say they've never been my favourite breed...by a big margin, and then some...though 'cute' they may be...

#While on the topic of oddballs and eccentrics, you'd have to give it to the present occupant of the Oval Office on all manner of levels...but surely his bid to purchase Greenland has to take the cake - I mean mickey (or minnie) - (out of the world community)...but I hear they (my genealogical ancestors the Danes, I mean) ain't sellin'...at least any time soon...least of all to someone likely to open it to full-scale oil et al exploration...

On the more prosaic, if at times equally laughable, or more aptly pathetic level...was:

#Health Minister David Clark's offhand comment awhile ago (July 11th, Morning Report, RNZ National), in regards to the Government's 'special reboot [re] drinking water supplies' (following the lethal episode in Havelock North a year or so ago) that "Mosgiel chose to chlorinate its drinking-water."

While I'm not especially opposed to the practice, conducted properly and all -i.e. with the proper safeguards and the like (as I was doubtless shown in my teens while serving as our high school rep to some of the local reservoirs around town)- my instinctive reaction was simply: "Yeah, right...just as they (Mosgielians, that is) were asked whether or not they supported the mandatory fluoridation of their local water supplies (around that selfsame time, following Havelock North)!"

My obvious sense of 'chagrin' at this is buttressed by all the palaver about "lack of respect for the people's choice" spoken following the Hamilton City Council going over the heads of its populace and ending fluoridation for awhile, whereas how often is it ever mentioned that the Dunedin City Council did just that back in 1967 when it mandated water fluoridation of (the great bulk of) Dunedin water supplies despite a 2:1 rejection of this in a local referendum prior to this?  

But providing safe and pure drinking water for its citizenry is clearly a basic requirement of local government; yes, it's beyond a joke and ought to scare the 'b......s' out of local councils and dental departments nationwide if and when in time to come the aggrieved citizenry decide to pursue these stick-in-the-mud, head-in-the-sand, never-say-we-were-wrong, health mis-practitioners for every last - no, not dime, coz money ain't the issue - shred of credibility they still have the gall to lay claim to...

At least John Colquhoun had the deep-down honesty and integrity, upon returning from overseas in the 80s, to concede he'd been wrong about the efficacy and/or safety of mandatory water fluoridation; which, as that man of few but salient, however at times acerbic, words Brian ****whateverhisnameis rightly described it - as others have been known to - is nothing more nor less than mass medication.

*Perhaps at times not all that surprising in view of the almost constant interruptions some of us experience on virtually a day-to-day basis, and especially whenever our trust in the follow-through of various sorts who, doubtless with every good intention in the world, enthusiastically promise us this, that and the other is shattered yet again, when those glibly-made promises simply fail to materialize...

...so apologies if and wherever my writing doesn't appear as up-to-scratch as arguably it sometimes is.

**But arguably not use-by date...

***But with hindsight's beneficent wisdom, having written all the foregoing in my usual stream-of-consciousness mode, I can see that the latter item should and indeed could never ever be characterized as at all minor or inconsequential; in fact it is a matter of the greatest moment...

****Edwards! (two days on)

And Speaking of Real, Super-Dooper Dopey...

...it's awfully hard - much as I might try - to get beyond the Aotearoa-New Zealand Green Party's approach to cannabis reform, aka the much-discussed (of late) referendum (in conjunction with Election 2020) on the potential *legalization of marijuana in **Godzone...

The moment isn't sufficient (i.e. I just don't have the time, and my ****shuteye is quite precious to me) to herein discuss (what I anyhow consider to be) all the ins and outs of the contentious subject...

...suffice to say, I've been closely following certain interesting 'developments' thereupon over recent weeks upon the Mike Hosking Show, and here is my bare-as-nails conclusions, for what they're worth:

Green Party law change standard-bearer Chloe Swarbrick has done not only 'the Hosk' himself, as well as his listenership, but verily the entire nation a great and immeasurable service, a 'good deed' worthy of TV1's special Sunday Night 'Good Sorts' slot, in fact one I'd humbly suggest is well worthy of an NZ 'Order of Merit' of the first degree...

And what, prithee, might that possibly be, in view of all I've written herein upon said topic? Just this, and it's something Mr Hosking has himself generously paid tribute to as well, if in somewhat more restrained and concise manner: Ms Swarbrick has done the really decent thing of alerting NZ Inc to the important 'case study' of the American state of Colorado, which has of course undergone a similar course to that outlined by supporters of cannabis legalization here in Godzone/God's Own...

Or rather, hasn't (i.e. achieved the sort of naively idealistic, rose-tinted, pollyannaish outcome suggested by dope legalization proponents); nope, it (that is, the venerable U S 'rocky mountain' state of *****Colorado, made so famous half a century ago by legendary singer-songwriter John Denver) has simply followed the typical path of liberalization long proposed by not only the likes of our (NZ's) own Greens, but by their dope-obsessed political predecessors here, i.e. the Aotearoa Legalize Cannabis Party (of yesteryear...or is it still around?)

Or, to briefly sum up as I borrow some very messily scribbled notes I made upon the subject during Mike's show sometime this morning...

-Eureka, I've found it!        -it was simply as follows:

Following a phone conversation - it surely couldn't have been that awful Skype thingamie, the connection was altogether too clear - that Hosking had with a Colorado-based, I believe, ******'expert' upon the matter, I scribbled as follows: Hey, Mike, you just have to hand it to Chloe Swarbrick, she's done a great - if entirely unintended - service to you, your listeners, and kiwis generally, by referring us all (awhile ago on your show) to Colorado State's actual on-the-ground lived experience of legalization.

Yes, the consequences of her doing so are essentially the exact opposite of why she did so, but hey, let's be generous and not only do what I suggested above (i.e. nominate Chloe for 'good sort of the year', or, better still, a special order of merit above and beyond the regular ole PM's one already referred to), but, moreover, admit that New Zealand Dopes Incorporated *******ain't really all that bad after all...for - however admittedly inadvertently - they've pointed us here in quite the right direction...to obtain the most pertinent, up-to-date facts upon the real-deal effects of marijuana legalization on a population, and surely that can't be altogether bad?

Postscript (and Encouragement to read my footnotes below):

Yes, with the benefit of hindsight, it just might be salient/useful/the smart thing to give/list/detail at least a few of my personal reasons for so readily falling in here with the anti-brigade. Point well taken - and moreover why (I think) marijuana legalization has apparently fallen so foul with so many even in Colorado - though our ('mainstream' public radio) media here would scarcely seem to have noticed; that it has proven so problematic to Colorado-ens since being made legal barely six years ago...

Admittedly methinks sometimes one (naturally enough) gets a little too caught up in the various passions aroused/elicited in such debates/contentious matters to see the wood clearly from the trees, to use a different but equally appropriate analogy, something about there being a little too much heat when a bit more light needs shedding upon a particular subject....

All doubtless only too true, but having considered all this overnight and throughout today, I believe you'll be 'pleasantly' surprised to find a small number admittedly, but nevertheless a series of fairly substantial reasons why I, like so many other kiwis - especially those parents who've brought up their own teens, as has been insightfully observed by some who've given the matter serious attention - am now backing away (if ever I'd been previously positive or at least lukewarm) from supporting such a move.

But yes, you'll need to read on, especially past ******(that's six asterisks) below, where I mention the Coloradon interviewee once more...and hopefully right through my P.P.S. ...

*Though without particularly strong or passionate views on the subject, Yours Truly has personally ***always favoured 'decriminalization' - with small, on-the-spot fines for smoking and/or possession - much in the manner of some overseas' jurisdictions...

**Aware - as of yesterday while blogposting, when a light suddenly went off inside my cerebral cortex - that 'Godzone' as opposed to 'God's Own' might be the correct term... However, since there doesn't seem a great deal of distinction between the two terms, I'm not awfully 'sorry' if, in using 'God's Own' regularly over my seven years now of blogposting, I've not been as technically correct as could be the case... - so, yes, you guessed correctly, I'm gonna continue using the two alternative forms (of what is essentially the entirely same concept) as interchangeably as ever...

***But yes, the proponents of such a law change are A1 correct on one basic point: the so-called, long-running 'war on drugs', led out by the United States of America under some federal administrations of yesteryear, has indeed been an abject failure -and all the rest...

****The non-drug-induced variety, I hasten to add...

*****For those interested (in bits of trivia) the very state - aside from my American favourite, Oregon - which just so happened (or so I adjudged at the time) to be closest to NZ in geography/size and population numbers (when I criss-crossed back across the US of A on a greyhound bus (through Colorado etc) on my way to Las Angeles to fly back to God's Own in June 1995.

******Entirely my own assessment following the interview, she didn't seem the sort to blow her own trumpet, that's for sure... Now (a day later) I heard Mr Hosking briefly revisiting the interview, by which I understand said expert to be a childrens' hospital doctor from Colorado by the name of Sam (as in Samantha, I gather) Wong.

She found all manner of harms/ills associated with the use of marijuana/cannabis/dope - in connection with her line of work, naturally enough - and these I'll doubtless refer to in time to come; suffice for now to simply say, that what she herself had to say about it, to quote the now famous words of one-time National Party leader and long-time Reserve Bank Governor, Don Brash, about the leader he ultimately replaced in the former post, was nothing constructive; end of story.

However, for Yours Truly - and which, I now realize, may well seem to contradict my own somewhat lenient attitude to the drug, i.e. if not 'positive' legalization thereof, at least its decriminalization - the essential reasons I oppose its use and legalization, are, in staccato bullet-point (form):

#the thc levels are apparently much higher than when it came into vogue in the 1960s, and hence its ability to wreak havoc (however limited) in the lives of its users -and those they're associated with  (including on our public roads and in our workplaces).

#the strong reaction to former Green M.P. Nandor Tanczos(sp?) - a highly intelligent chap, just incidentally (and a seventh-day Sabbath keeper as well) - whose lifetime championing of said drug, including during his three-six-nine year stint in Parliament, put him offside with many, including especially school principals evidently throughout the length and breadth of Aotearoa...concerned by/upset over the way in which they doubtless rightly perceived his (political) influence in those (arguably generally unhallowed) chambers making New Zealand's laws - while continuing to smoke the illegal substance (as well as have it in an Auckland shop he was involved with) - was somehow encouraging school pupils to engage in smoking the stuff themselves - and probably in school time!

#It serving to be a 'gateway drug' into the far more serious and life-wrecking narcotics and hallucinogens etcetera, as expertly outlined in graphic detail in former 'Focus on the Family' radio show host Dr James Dobson's seminal work Dare to Discipline.

#And last but not least - though doubtless I've neglected a whole host of other weighty reasons - the well-documented increase in levels of psychosis amongst teenagers and young adults especially in recent years. Hearing such a description a wee while ago I was struck as with a 2 by 4 across my cranium that that oh so perfectly described/depicted/characterized the life issues and trajectory long since travelled by a certain member of my extended family...directly impacting many others including the rest of our family as a result. Nuff said (except to briefly add that I personally at least happen to find such purely/'merely' anecdotal stuff fairly conclusive).

*P.S. And to top it all off/be the veritable clincher for me, I'll briefly touch on one of the commonest, and to my mind - as that of innumerable others - a fairly conclusive one...in favour - not...of its legalization: ye ole hypocrisy scenario...i.e. the longstanding situation wherein two of the most lethal and societally impacting drugs, i.e. alcohol and tobacco, have long been themselves perfectly legal.

A plausible-sounding and -seeming argument indeed, to which I can only respond, as so many others have themselves concluded thereabouts, that two wrongs do not a right make. End of story.

P.P.S. And if one needs additional reasons, just talk with A & E staff in our public hospitals, who, while they may well have no strong or firm views upon the legalizing of dope, certainly do not need anything else to add to their already laborious workload and increasingly fraught job...-mainly due, it must be readily conceded, to the demon drink. 

*******Something entirely in line with the long-stated motto of this very blogsite, in fact, which is in bestowing bouquets and brickbats with fear (of) and favour toward none!

Making Sense of the Recent New Zealand Census: Don't Try, Folks...It's Well Beyond Redeemable

Yes, at long last - not a moment before time - someone has deigned to 'take responsibility' for the massive botch-up that was Census 2018...

The Minister 'responsible for' Stats NZ? Not on your life, no, the woman in charge of its undertaking.

So you'd hardly be surprised by the response of this particular punter, early this morning, while listening to Newstalk ZB's and RNZ National's respective journos interviewing the relevant commentators about the sheer unadulterated debacle that was Census 2018...

"B....y hell, they're useless!" was my involuntarily, if mental response to Minister James Shaw bouncing around upon the head of half a dozen pins in order to avoid calling out the entire exercise, doubtless due to the rather unedifying reflection an honest assessment of the whole sorry saga would inevitably have...upon guess who?

Yes, as almost every commentator has well stated, at least Liz MacPherson had the [moral integrity] to take personal responsibility, to decide to herself 'cop it' for the colossal cock-up involved, and hand in her resignation accordingly...

But don't get me wrong, as has been well said by others in times gone by - and myself as well - 'the previous lot' (i.e. the Key/English Government) are themselves far from blameless thereabouts. Too busy conducting a meaningless flag referendum, you'd not be far off in suggesting; whilst totally and utterly ignoring the only referendum worth attending to during their nine-year tenure, the one in which the overwhelming majority of kiwis gave the absolute thumbs-down to the insane new *no-smacking legislation foisted upon an unwilling populace by Sue Bradford, Helen Clark et al...

Hey, statistics are just a bunch of contestable numbers and not all that important anyway, I hear you saying. Bringing to mind that well-hackneyed saying about 'damn lies and statistics'. Surely, but by the same token why even bother to have such a (Governmental) 'Department' if such things don't really matter anyway? No, you can't have it both ways, people...

But it gets a whole lot worse than that. For not only were large number of the indigenous population (i.e. Maori) themselves not engaged in filling out said Census, but various talkback callers throughout the morning upon Kerre Woodham-McIver's Newstalk ZB morning show revealed that technical computer folk were among those completely bamboozled and flummoxed by the census, and that for all manner of reasons I'll not go into just now...

No, all round a failure of momentous proportions in an exercise which is understandably fairly pivotal insofar as any government requires accurate/precise, super-detailed and comprehensive info in order to plan for the needs and requirements of the people they would claim to be ruling. And moreover for a Government already arguably long on fair speeches and over-promising and rather shorter upon actual, feet-on-the-ground delivery of many wonderful intentions, it's all the worse...

An A, B or C minus for their efforts? No, folks...and even a D, E or F would scarcely suffice...
No, back to the literal drawing board, peoples, and without any further ado...

-a real stuff-up doesn't even begin to come close to describing what went on, and I'm not even referring to the pathetic employment practices of those responsible for getting would-be canvassers out there and on the ground doing the proper job that was never such a problem in decades gone by.
Such as requiring mobile phones for census collectors in areas (like vast chunks of Northland, for instance) that they've been made well aware - by job candidates themselves - are simply without such cellphone coverage in the first place.

Yes, heads should roll, including that already tendered, but the real candidates for ye ole honourable 'buck-stopping' have, as per usual, gotten off scot-free; and, far worse than that, are, as Minister Shaw himself well epitomizes, not only - and genuinely! - quite unfazed by what's happened, to beggar belief still further they can't even imagine they've done anything at all wrong...

But hey, all isn't lost, people, I understand that the producers of the classic British political sit-com 'Yes Minister' are falling over themselves to get to our fair land in an unholy scramble to resurrect that show so as not to miss out upon our self-made bit of satire and slapstick that was Census 2018.

*Which, despite ongoing strenuous efforts by various champions of said law, yes, does effectively outlaw - the vast majority of - parental smacking...and no sirree, this most assuredly ain't fake news!

Abortion (To Be) Declared Lawful/Legal In God's Own...in the not too distant future: Nothing will really change...and yet everything has - long since - changed

...and not for the better...

Yes, the abortion law change (in terms of technical criteria of jurisprudence overseeing such an 'operation') is now well underway, with a well nigh 4:1 majority presently supporting a first reading (of said 'reform' legislation). And the parliamentary debate was quite 'respectable', even unusually polite and civil for such a highly-charged matter of longstanding contention throughout the land...

...as indeed throughout most Western jurisdictions for a considerable time...

While America is now moving, slowly but surely, to pretty well repeal its in/famous 'Roe vs Wade' Supreme Court judgment back in '73...not via the long-proposed federal law change amending the Constitution (to revoke that especially contentious piece of precedent-setting legal decision-making)...an earnest but ultimately unrealized intention, as close and careful observers of the US political scene have long since realized, that was betrayed in no uncertain terms by abortion opponents' most supportive presidential standard-bearers, i.e. Ronald Reagan and George W Bush...

...who both promised - or, at least, were believed to have (if only implicitly to their most diehard supporters) such an amendment to the U S Constitution...

...little 'ole Aotearoa-New Zealand is now moving in a different, in the decidedly opposite direction...following a commitment then PM-elect Jacinda Ardern gave her own staunchest of supporters in the TV debates just prior to Election 2017...

But, as most commentators who've really given the matter any real thought and reflection have realized, this proposed law change - to effectively remove abortion from the status of a crime - which looks likely to pass (its ultimate third reading) in a veritable canter, NZ First's proposed referendum 'S.O.P.' amendment notwithstanding - may well prove not to significantly or appreciably change 'conditions on the ground'...i.e. the actual number of abortions performed in what was once known as 'God's Own' nation...

But one thing it most certainly does do, and that in no uncertain terms: it reveals where our collective 'heart' as NZers actually is these days, i.e. in active opposition, nay rebellion to the 'God of Nations' to whom our national anthem is dedicated...

...effectively giving 'Gaia's Great Gentleman' in the sky the real heave-ho, telling Him in so many (unspoken) words to pretty much "Sod off!" (to put it as politely and euphemistically as possible).
To basically "P... off!" and get out of our lives and not even bother looking back over His shoulder to see how we're doin'...

Unfortunately, regrettably - for 'Godzoners' - the Great One in the Heavens is way too much of a true gentleman not to respect our (heartfelt) wishes...

...and so I've little doubt that He will indeed back off - bigtime - on the back (pun entirely unintended, believe me) of this latest in a succession/series of ever-escalating moral misjudgments this nation has made over (pretty much precisely) the past two decades...

...leaving us to the consequences of the shortsighted decisions and ungodly choices we've made.

But beware of what you wish for, folks...they have an uncanny habit of eventually coming to pass...and believe you me, when you turn from the Only One in Whom there is either temporal help or eternal salvation...you have effectively given yourselves and your futures into the hands of one who with great glee will take advantage of your wilful ignorance and self-imposed blindness...

...and last I heard, folks, he's taking no prisoners, except down into the Lake of Fire where he is going in the reasonably foreseeable...

But as my ole Dad used to say, "you pays your money and you takes your choice."

I once knew a fella named Kieran...to comment hereupon he was keen on...I waited and waited, and still he pro-cras-tin-a-ted, so help me God I just had to move on...

But if you read this, in regards to that 'promise', my writing's now overdue, and without making much ado, may I kindly suggest...

...the blogpost immediately before this!

-David