Christmas is most assuredly a pagan mish-mash, verily a hotchpotch of all manner of unScriptural bits 'n bobs, even of anti-Christian customs, practices, rituals and rites...yet the Good LORD graciously utilized the same to *'strangely warm' my heart and bring me to Himself...

Considered reflections upon Christmas over coming days and weeks - specifically over the fabled **'12 days of Christmas'...

To Be Continued (over said period), as time and occasion become/s available...

On 'the fifth day of Christmas' (i.e. Sunday, December 29th)

To start at the end first (as ****Yours Truly admittedly has a habit/penchant/proclivity of doing)...

The one reason for my steadfast loyalty to (the) Christmas (*****tradition), and my concurrent unwillingness to ditch its 'observance' (however one might interpret that in individual circumstances) is simply this:

******whatever serves my LORD's ultimate purpose(s) of reconciling sinners (such as me, myself and I) to Himself...is fair game to be 'okayed' as something not to be sniffed at (and outright opposed)...

that overarching, cosmic purpose trumps each and every possible gainsaying argument...

...for time and eternity...

Nuff Said -end of story.

*The words (I do believe) of the Quaker (or Religious Society of Friends) 'founder' George Fox...

**After beginning this 'mini-series' of sorts (though all self-contained within the one blogpost), I duly realized/discovered that ***there are indeed two (distinct) sets of said 'twelve days of Christmas', to wit: the period extending from Christmas Day itself through to the fifth of January; and that starting with Boxing Day and ending unto 'Epiphany', i.e. January the sixth (incidentally my mother's mother's birthday, though she has now long since vacated the earthly scene).

However, to epitomize the innate contrarian that I am, I'm herein rewriting said tradition in my own image, beginning it upon Christmas Eve (a nephew's birthday) and finishing it on January the fourth.
Essentially because I began selfsame blogpost upon this date, thereby unknowingly deviating from set twelve days of Christmas, which admittedly I wasn't clear in my own mind about anyway...

Nevertheless selfsame deviation seems mildly justifiable, insofar as Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day have each long since held a special meaning for those who (however wrongly and unscripturally) considered/deemed the season somehow or other to be bathed in/clothed with sacred solemnity...and thus any one of these three days seems an appropriate starting-point for the 12 days.

***According, once again, to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).

****Please bear with (and excuse, if necessary) my use of that (potentially) pompous term 'YT': it simply serves as a convenient shorthand (to avoid having to use the pronoun me off-and-on on an ongoing basis (throughout my various blogposts); it's certainly not because I consider my opinion the be-all-and-end-all or final word on any contentious matter (though my related blogsite's title 'Nuff Said' I concede might lead one to surmise differently!)

*****For whatever one might happen to think/believe about the subject, that ultimately is all that Christmas is - there being absolutely no Scriptural warrant whatsoever for establishing it as a regular much less mandatory 'church usage'...in any circumstance whatsoever (I'll readily add)...

******Though of course it could well be - quite legitimately - argued that God uses many and various 'things'/situations in and of themselves far from good, and even through-and-through, downright evil...to accomplish His sovereign plans and purposes throughout the Universe...

...so one could therefore equally argue that that in itself doesn't really, legitimately justify my own attempted justification of Christmas...

Oh boy, it does indeed look as though I have my work well and truly cut out for me this time...

(Yes), to be continued...

Part Two (on the 'sixth day of Christmas', i.e. Monday December 30th):

Ever bearing in mind that

it is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment...

such generally celebrated occasions/holidays - however pagan-derived, -associated and otherwise adulterated/inculturated the various church festivals as Christmas and Easter might well happen to be (and notwithstanding their numerous and highly significant 'Christian' elements/overtones which are equally quite clearly impossible for any to really deny, even if they do choose - for their particular arguments - to overlook)...

...nevertheless do furnish abundant provision for folk to 'witness' something they otherwise never would (have occasion to)...

i.e. to hear 'the good news'/gospel (if in miniature) presented to their understanding on wholly positive terms and grounds, uncontaminated as it were by the constant carping - and moreover, by-and-large cynical - criticism of all things pertaining to Christians and the Christian religion so endemic to especially Western society these days...

To Be Continued: Part Three: The good, sound theology undergirding...Christmas itself? Nay, but most assuredly the *plenitude of true Christmas carols which which so many of us are so familiar...

*Though doubtless that odd, quaint little word 'cornucopia' is somewhat more descriptive...

So how's the following as expressions of good, sound biblical theology...

...and/or simply great, sublimely poetic language...?

...Glories stream from heaven afar, Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia...
Son of God, love's pure light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus, lord, at Thy birth, -Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

...Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, Was born upon this day: To save us all from Satan's pow'r, When we were gone astray...
From God our Heavenly Father, A blessed angel came, And unto certain shepherds Brought tidings of the same: How that in Bethlehem was born The Son of God by name...
...The shepherds at these tidings rejoiced much in mind...and went to Bethlehem straight way, The Blessed Babe to find...

Just a sample, not especially well-organized, to be sure, at this point...but will complete this tomorrow...upon Epiphany, the real, true dinkum '12th day of Christmas'...

Finally (no, unfortunately, not on January the 6th, the 120th birth-anniversary of my Mum's Mother, had she still been alive), but on this eve of Friday the 10th...

Having, awhile ago now, made my own unadulterated mish-mash (of the carols/lines thereof I've quoted) in my final blogpost words immediately above...

...I'll now simply add the words of one of my Mother's own favourite carols, 'O Little Town of Bethlehem', which - to my mind, anyway, seems to so sublimely capture so much of the real essence of the fabled 'Christmas spirit'...

O little town of Bethlehem! How still we see thee lie; Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by; Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting Light;The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary; And  gather'd all above, While mortals sleep, the angels keep Their watch of wond'ring love. O morning stars, together Proclaim the holy birth! And praises sing to God the King, And peace to men on earth.

How silently, how silently, The wondrous gift is giv'n! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heav'n. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sins, and enter in, Be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell, O come to us, abide with us; Our Lord Emmanuel! 

You Oughtn't Point the Finger at Everyone Else, When a Dozen or more are Pointing Right back at you: !'Fake News'! is all in the view of the Beholder, and no, the RIGHT has no monopoly thereupon!

PLEASE FAST-FORWARD to end of blogpost (for necessary disclaimer)...that is, if at all troubled in the meantime by anything you happen to read herein...

So if Donald Trump, 'Bojo' (and 'anti-vaccers', 1080 opponents, anti-fluoridationists et al) are the 
only, the chief purveyors of so-called fake news...

...then prithee tell me...why don't/how come...
 ye mainstream media

#give hardly a brass razoo of notice/publicity/acknowledgement to the recent passing/death of one of the world's foremost environmentalists - and certainly most memorable and eloquent communicators thereof, the indomitable, indefatigable, and genuinely 'unique' (& yes, 'old-style' and 'old-fashioned') Brit David Bellamy...unless it's because he happens to come down upon the 'wrong' side of arguably the defining issue of our times...?

#have effectively ignored the extremely disturbing recently-publicized accusations of rape by the political icon, longtime Aussie Prime Minister Sir Robert ('Bob') Hawke against one of his daughters?

the alternative, Left-wing media

#Have, amidst their rather endless diatribes against and vitriol towards British-P.M.-elect Boris Johnson, incidentally just returned in a generation-defining, historic and *well-nigh unprecedented stonking landslide win, which has pretty well upended and reset the United Kingdom's electoral map and political landscape for years and even decades to come, barely if at all mentioned/covered/ detailed (let alone footnoted) the controversy surrounding/UK-wide condemnation of Labour's now caretaker leader Jeremy Corbyn's extremely problematic, unpalatable and **offensive fraternizing with anti-semitism and some of its most reprehensible acolytes in a way and on a scale unheard of since WW11...in one of its most blatant, in-your-face manifestations (as in the United States of America in the Trump era) since the ***European-wide fascist movements of the 1930s...?

Both such 'wings' of the western media...

#hardly ever devote any, much less 'prime' time - over a fairly long period now (so, no, I'm not 'manufacturing offence' as so many seem to have a proclivity/penchant for these days - just to reassure ya!) to the ****ghastly, horrifying genocide - no, not only of ******China's Uighur and Burma's/Myanmar's Rohinga Muslims, and even (of recent days) India's understandably alarmed (globally, third largest) Muslim population (post recent parliamentary law changes which have sparked nationwide protests and street marches etc)...

...but the ongoing genocide of the ancient Christian peoples of the Middle East...which has apparently effectively reduced their proportion of the population there from 10-20% in centuries gone by to around 1-2% now (and rapidly declining further)...

*Especially for a (now) fourth-term administration...

**So offensive in fact that the United Kingdom's 'chief rabbi' not only denounced the same, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, but - in what was probably an unprecedented move (certainly post-the 1930s and 1940s) - advised Jews throughout the nation not to vote for JC and the Labour Party...

***As personally studied in detail way back when in 1986 (in my first attempt at a Bachelor of Arts degree) in a Political Studies paper upon 'Totalitarian States' (of the fascist and/or Nazi variety) at my local University of Otago.

****Though, yes, I'll readily grant/concede that *****any and every genocide could be thus described...

...and considering such, what, pray tell me, are we in God's Own/Godzone to make of the palpable - arguably complicit! - silence of not only said media but such 'left-wingers' as those constituting the NZ Green Party itself over the presence in its very midst (and in the House of Representatives, moreover) of a person well-known to have participated in the public defence of some of those implicated in the awful tragedy of civil war-wracked and decimated 1990s' Rwanda!?!?!

Whilst you can bet your bottom dollar that the selfsame helped hound out of the unhallowed halls of said chamber an M.P. who had the perversity of nature to steal a dead child's identity...sickening, I'll readily concede...but are you suggesting it's tantamount to effectively condoning ethnic cleansing (as indeed said aforementioned MP herself did by her actions defending perpetrators of genocide)?!?!? 

That is, if we're really, truly, objective and dispassionate in our political views and perspective, as opposed to being in the grip of unthinking, intractable, even irrational ideology and the slave of petty party political partisanship!  

******Excepting the Rohinjas (generally reported upon) and the BBC (and New York-based radio show 'Democracy Now') re both Rohinjas and Uighurs; and admittedly increasing elements of the mainstream media are reporting upon these Muslim victims of ethnic cleansing etcetera...

! !ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY/CRUCIAL/CRITICAL DISCLAIMER
(In fact, PLEASE READ without further ado.)

Upon due reflection, with the benefit of five days' hindsight, I now well realize that said fake news (in my title) is itself a misnomer - perhaps an (however unintended) species of the selfsame?!?! That is, at least insofar as the specific illustrations included in my blogpost are concerned...

So, yes, some - serious - reworking of the aforementioned will have to be carried out ASAP, time permitting - which, unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be at the present or for the foreseeable...

So let me simply and briefly include these observations/remarks as I am now doing to 'cover off' said 'questionable' subject-matter, or rather the slant I've happened to take thereupon...

Instead of fake news I doubtless should have posited slanted, unbalanced 'news' (reportage/coverage). Effectively leaving out/omitting the stuff they'd rather not inform you about - for whatever reason.

Further reflections thereupon moreover convince me that my primary beef is not with left-wing media generally, let alone (necessarily) Western mainstream media...but with the so-called media of Aotearoa-New Zealand as such, the broadcasting division - and especially the TV component thereof - which has left much to be desired over recent years and decades...and that's putting matters mildly! 

A Well-Deserved Comeuppance: You Oughta Not Profess/Proclaim yourself/Pretend to be 'Holier-than thou'...Unless You Really ARE Holier than the rest of us: Some carefully-considered Reflections/Ruminations on the Fallout from the United Kingdom's General Election

Having now - *'both' on Election Day, December 12th, UK time (13th, NZ time), and Friday eve the 20th (NZ time) and way into the wee hours Sunday the 22nd (NZ time) - 'listened in' to the top-notch (online) election coverage c/o - on the big day, SKY News LIVE; and later on, ITV News LIVE...

let me entreat your indulgence vis-a-vis some if yet imperfectly formulated thoughts and ideas thereabouts (again, seeking your due indulgence, listed in bullet-point fashion)...

#This was no run-of-the-mill (electoral/political) result...rather, its ramifications will be felt throughout the British political establishment for some considerable time to come...and then some!

#This was no close-run thing, no by-the-skin-of-one's-teeth, scraping through to victory by the barest of margins...

#There were two - actually, arguably **three (***and the last by no means the least!) political party 'winners'...i.e. the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party, with their respective leaders, Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon.

#There were two ****out-and-out losers, and were they what! Naturally I refer to the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats ('LibDems', as we're so often  - and *****'cliche-riddenly' - told). Alongside their two leaders, i.e. Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn, if not necessarily in that particular order!

#The electoral map (as indicated in point #1 above) has been radically rewritten, pretty well beyond recognition...and perhaps semi-permanently, for all we know...

No longer is the north (of England, much less the United Kingdom) 'natural Labour territory', including its smaller cities/towns and traditional 'fishing villages'; the large(r) cities, from London through to Manchester, Birmingham et al, are (as per the Liberal Democrats). And let's not forget  - as was well enunciated throughout the ITV LIVE News coverage - that not all that long ago the *********'country' of Scotland was not only a Labour Party stronghold - heartland territory (like the aforementioned northern districts) so to speak...but oftentimes the very key to its electoral success!

*Yes, to be pedantically precise, 'thrice' would doubtless be more accurate (though sounds worse).

**Actually four, if one (understandably) also includes here the offshoot 'Brexit means Brexit' party!

***By which I refer (but of course!) to the United Kingdom Independence Party, more commonly known by the acronym 'UKIP'...whilst admitting that for the purists therein - including leader Nigel Farage - the ultimate form of the brexit agreed upon will be of great significance, if not all-important.

****Terms such as a smashing/stonking win/victory were readily employed on the night, and such related terminology as 'trounced', 'routed' spring readily to this punter's mind...-quite frankly, it is hardly exaggerating things to suggest the possibilities are almost endless, the success (of Johnson's Conservatives - and, for that matter, of Sturgeon's SNP) on the one hand, and the utter 'discomfiture' of the Labourites and LibDems on the other was so blimin' comprehensive...

*****Spoken by journos as if - like that now (at least media-wide) 'ubiquitous' abbreviated ******'word' 'ap(p)' - we all somehow instinctively know precisely what is meant...even if some would doubtless have no idea whatsoever...

******Though personally I'd not dignify such a 'word-ism' with such a *******syntactical compliment!

*******Hey, how about this for a newbie word: syntagmata. Sounds awfully like stigmata to me. ********As ever, c/o my Chambers Concise Dictionary.

*********As commonly referred to (even if I wouldn't call Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland such mini-nations within a nation - though the illustrious history of each admittedly lends itself to such!)

To Be Continued (in awhile, probably following seasonal refreshing and recuperation!): Part Two: The Guts of the Matter: Labourite 'Purists' and Ideologues Now a Scourge and Plague Upon their Own House...Fast Becoming Anathema to Labour's rank-and-file supporters...Whilst Boris Johnson Seizes the Moment to Potentially Become one of Great Britain's all-time most significant leaders...

Earthly Impeachment will have 'not a bar' upon imminent, rapidly-approaching Heavenly *Judgment...

...'at the last trump...the trump of God'...

The King James Bible (I Corinthians 15:52; I Thessalonians 4:18).

Nuff Said!

*Arraignment, to be technically accurate/precise, as by this stage (in earthly 'arrangements'), all such determinations will have been well and truly made/completed...

...and the consequent 'execution' of said heavenly Verdict will be thenceforth 'dished out'...

Leave the fellow well enough alone: NZ Police revive tales of Arthur Allan Thomas's 'questionable past', in damning new accusations, but with a heavy-laden whiff of arse-saving self-validation/vindication/justification...

Part Two: John Bercow HAS IT...I repeat, the Right Honourable Gentleman/Member/Speaker HAS IT...

To Be Continued...

(Ex-Speaker of the British House of Commons) John Bercow HAS IT - yes, you heard me aright! - John Bercow HAS IT (down to a T): the perspicacious, perspicuous percipience of the United Kingdom's unforgettable, telegenically-charismatic (ongoing) Brexit vote-presiding speaker (and his perceptiveness on the night of the UK's historic general election)

Despite getting off to a bad/poor start (in listening in to the United Kingdom's much-anticipated General Election results pour in last Friday, December 12th (midday on) New Zealand time)...

...by hook or by crook I somehow-or-other managed to stumble upon arguably *the TV channel to watch...as the historic results increased from a mere trickle to a steady stream to a raging torrent...

...and Britons (whether English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish) watched in a mixture of joy and jubilation through to stunned bemusement and amazement through to absolute horror and dismay...

...as Britain's governing Conservative Party romped home to an unexpected, all but unprecedented (**English/Welsh) landslide, utterly routing the Labour Party - and from its staunchest strongholds - in the process...

*I.e. Sky News LIVE (c/o the ****ubiquitous world wide web)...

**Whilst the Brexit-abhorring ***Scottish National Party themselves stormed home in their home patch, and in Northern Ireland, a plague-on-both-your-houses sentiment gave a slap-in-the-face to both (pro-Brexit) Ulster Unionists and (anti-Brexit) Irish Nationalists alike...

***Ironically those increasingly urging - for perfectly understandable reasons - a transformation of the United Kingdom's first-past-the-post electoral system to one more fully representative of the proportion of the vote garnered by each and every (at least significant) political party running in the elections, beheld a very mixed result insofar as how far this particular claim could be sustained...

...for yes, the Conservatives scooped up 365 (=6/11; = 54% of) *****seats, though obtaining just 43.6% of the vote...

the Labour Party managed ******only 203-odd (4/13; = ?32?% of) seats, while gaining 32.2% of the vote...

the SNP gained 48 (7.5% of) seats, though garnering just 3.9% of total votes (cast nationwide)...

whilst the Liberal Democrats - an even bigger loser than Labour - got just 11 (= 1.66% of) seats, while receiving 11% of the vote...-which ought to have delivered the 'LibDems' a whopping 72 seats!

UKIP (the United Kingdom Independence Party) - and its tiny offshoot - received 2.8% of the vote, though obtained no seats at all...- whereas under *******MMP/STV etc, would've gotten 17 electorates.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point...

****Whilst reviewing this word's meaning, wouldn't it be only too appropriate that, for the first time I can ever recollect, I (just now) stumble upon the word 'Tynwald'...meaning? 'The parliament of the Isle of Man', according to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary...

I noticed upon Election Night that this was (part of) an electorate retained by the Conservative Party, so obviously it retains only partial sovereignty (like Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland)...
Evidently, according to an 'ole gardening customer - herself a writer/author of no mean repute - said isle's parliament is full of independents, a 'status' attributed to Yours Truly upon his own rather unsuccessful attempt at becoming a member of Aotearoa-New Zealand's own House of Representatives (back in 2008), though I did get a 'nice number' of votes, i.e. 222 (.6% of the total).

*****Or, in the British context, perhaps 'constituencies' is the more apposite word.

******Curiously almost exactly their actual percentage of the overall votes!

*******Shorthand (respectively) for Mixed Member Proportional and Single Transferable Vote, two proportionally-determined electoral systems used (respectively) by God's Own/Godzone (i.e. New Zealand) and Oz (Australia), among numerous others (such nations) no doubt...

********As an ardent Brexit-supporter myself, I nevertheless in all honesty would have to concede that Brexit-supporting parties (i.e. the Conservatives, UKIP, its tiny offshoot - ?Deliver Brexit? - and the 'DUP', i.e. the Democratic Unionists of Northern Ireland) only garnered 46.5/47.5% or so of the total vote, whereas anti-Brexit/Brexit-wary parties such as the Scottish Nationalists, Liberal Democrats and Green Party (and Sinn Fein) through to Labour, obtained around 52.5/53.5% of total votes cast...

...any ambiguity (on my part) being due to the large number (and exceedingly wide variety!) of 'Other parties' whose votes altogether came to about 1-2% of all those cast throughout the United Kingdom...and whose relative positions upon the same (Brexit) doubtless straddled the entire continuum of possibilities...

But then one could conceivably argue - and many, including the writer, long has - that Britons already long since had delivered their own verdict upon that particular matter...and thus and so a Brexit-delivering Government, as has - apparently - just been voted in bigtime, is 'just what the good doctor ordered'...

Part Two: "The Ayes have it, the ayes have it!" - "the Noes have it, the noes have it!"...I mean, John Bercow has it...and has he what!

People want their voices heard...and will keep on 'doing so' until they - eventually - are. That's it folks.. End of story. (The 'Brexiting Britishers' in a nutshell...and a whole lot of others besides!)

Hallelujah - what an answer to prayer (et al)!

*"May Democracy Indeed Win"...in today's British General Election - Whatever Might Befall Boris Johnson personally **(in his own seat) -

...as it quite frankly hasn't managed to vis-a-vis the historic verdict of the U K populace to brexit delivered two-and-a-half years ago in the June 23rd, 2016 referendum, which, remember, simply (in so many words) asked British voters:

Should the United Kingdom remain in or leave the European Union?

Postscript (immediately following head of the hour newscast - on both Newstalk ZB and RNZ National) after result of exit polls declared...

It indeed appears as though traditional - but Brexit-backing - Labour supporters in Great Britain's north have actually 'bitten the bullet', so to speak, and - holding their noses - have turned their backs upon long-held tradition and backed the Tories...

...who appear on trajectory to scoop up - if results transpire as indicated, and who knows how individual electorates will deviate therefrom? - some 368-odd seats in the British Parliament. Whilst Labour is delivered its worst result since WW11! - well befitting a leader whose views on Jews were not only ** highly questionable and suspect, but arguably - in seeking to (present the image of having) 'a bob both ways' ultimately revealed a person ***completely lacking a real moral compass...

...and thus absolutely, completely unfit to run the United Kingdom...

Having said that, I wouldn't personally be all that bothered if - by that strange quirk of politics that is first-past-the-post - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself loses out in the mix...suffering an astonishing defeat - in the circumstances - in his own London electorate, a city - completely unlikely the nation's midlands and northern cities and Wales, anyhow - has shown itself strongly pro-Bremain from the referendum on...

*As NZ TV One News' Daniel Faitaua expressed things in signing off on last night's 6 p.m. bulletin...

**As it transpired Johnson won handily; one doesn't have to be (even) an (amateur) ****psephologist to realize that a winning margin of 7,000-odd votes is a very comfortable majority indeed...

***One could use far stronger language (in view of the scourge, anathema and quite frankly deep-seated evil that is anti-semitism), but let's just (graciously) say on this day of victory (for those here, in the United Kingdom, and throughout the (especially Western) world, who still adhere to the principle of true participatory democracy) that Jeremy Corbyn, especially following his election by the Labour Party rank-and-file way back when, once well and truly promised better things...

****One engaged in the 'sociological and statistical study of election results and trends' (according to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary), a term I doubtless picked up somewhere along the line whilst an on-again, off-again Political Studies/Science student (and eventually 'minor' graduate as part of my Bachelor of Arts degree finally acquired in 2005 at the University of Otago, Dunedin.)

Typical - if Perfectly Understandable - 'Hoo-ha' over White Island Tragedy: it's indeed awful, folks, but get with the programme, awful things happen...

And, however heartless the preceding may well seem, it's simply to register my sentiment, that there's nothing new under the sun, and moving heaven and earth to seek to pin blame upon someone or some group (of usually, money-making people) is no viable solution, and certainly no way to move on...

These things do happen, but to subsequently and consequently seek to wrap everyone up in cotton wool to prevent a recurrence of such unmitigated tragedies, does nothing for nobody...

And for a certain (Newshub) reporter the other night - one never backward about coming forward and seeking to find a scapegoat for each and every disaster - to again attempt to do so, will help no-one...

These things happen in a world full of suffering, and one can only feel for those thus bereaved, or the critically injured, but masking everyone with band-aids to stop them from doing anything and everything which may be risky or potentially life-threatening is a way to ban a plethora of activities in which human beings engage, and to seriously circumscribe that most precious intangible of things, the freedom/liberty to live and let live - as one wishes - provided one doesn't adversely impact others.

I beg your pardon, and crave your understanding, but I have to confess, I'm positively inclined - prejudiced even - towards certain peoples' groups, such as Filipinos, Indians, Pacific Islanders & Caribbean-'ers'...

(This was meant to be part of a more substantial blogpost, for the present gone from my memory. But hey, why not 'spread the love around', as people say...?)

Anti-Semitism Rising from the Ashes, Extending its Ghastly, Hideous Tentacles in almost every direction... No, the lessons of the Holocaust have still not been learnt - the only thing we ever really learn from history is that we learn nothing from history...

A Great Totara Has Fallen: David Bellamy, you will be dearly missed

What can I (possibly) say? Heartbroken, as I've hardly ever been by the death of a public figure. Hearing only half an hour ago as the 'breaking news' item came through upon Newstalk ZB...

Having met him personally, chatting with him a bit following a couple (biennial) Science Festival meetings here in Dunedin, back around 2000-2002 or so, my one and only (physical) recollection is of a bear of a man resembling one's favourite uncle (for those having such), someone who you could hug (and be squeezed virtually to death!)

David, you were one of a kind, never bowing to the popular mood, whether in your refusal (as you stated at the outset of a public lecture during the aforementioned local science festival) to acknowledge peoples' "partners", preferring the (now exceedingly) old-fashioned concept of husband and wife - probably, till death [did] you part! - or in refusing to bow to the now received wisdom over *climate change...

...a true individualist, idiosyncratic almost to a fault...but withal a supremely and fundamentally decent human being, a tribute unfortunately not possible to be given to grace many a deceased...

*No, I believe in CC, but not in the way that people are encouraged to, and certainly not in terms of the 'steps of amelioration' commonly and now almost universally advocated...

And While Musing Upon Praise from Unexpected Quarters for those of wholly differing 'faiths'...

...isn't/wasn't it refreshing to hear - just the other night upon 'the 700 Club' - of Muhammadu Buhari,  the Muslim President of Nigeria's generous eulogy to the passing of one of the all-time great evangelists (nicknamed 'Africa's Billy Graham') of the African continent?

Speaking of the death of the (I believe, Dutch) preacher Reinhard Bonnke, he declared that Bonnke's it was a loss "to Nigeria, Africa, and the entire world".

Rare praise indeed, and especially for one of a rival religion which has been in a veritable *'battle for Africa' with the Islamic religion - as Communism faded out of the picture over recent years and decades (there as pretty well everywhere); and a man, moreover, who was credited with having helped **'convert' up to 75 million or so Africans to the ****Christian religion over the long tenure of his evangelistic *****campaigns there... 

*A term taken from the bestseller by Brother Andrew, Battle for Africa, of a half-century ago.

**Though it is simply inconceivable that Bonnke himself wouldn't have - immediately and readily - disowned/disavowed all personal credit or praise  for such achievement, ascribing the spiritual success of his ministrations instead to the all-powerful ***convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit...

***Jesus Himself promising His eleven disciples/apostles that God the Holy Spirit - upon His descent, after Jesus' own ascent to the third heavens - would convict people

of sin, because they believe not on Me;
of righteousness, because I go to My Father...
of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

(Gospel of John, 16:8-11)

****Again, Bonnke would never have claimed 'his' converts were being/had been converted to a religion (as such), realizing as all truly converted Christians do that conversion is ever and only to a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, The Eminent Personage to Whom the Apocalypse, i.e. the Book of Revelation, ascribes the pre-eminent title

LORD of LORDS and KING of KINGS...

*****I was about to put 'crusades' (but thought better of it), showing how such terminology is still freely, readily employed by believers even today, if arguably less and less acceptably (to many - secular onlookers and critics anyhow!) But, once again - cf my (December 9th, November 29th and August 25th) blogposts, and, especially, my - still uncompleted - January 17th one entitled 'Making a man an offender for a word'... 

A Teary-Eyed Salute and Send-Off to Sesame Street's *'Big Bird'...

who, alongside Oscar the Grouch (i.e. the garbage bin 'fella'), the Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert, Grover - and Count von Count, Elmo and Mr Snuffleupagus -

were

characters who - as informational, not to mention inspirational, treasure troves (and hilariously riveting at all times) - played a seminal role in my (real) childhood education and development...

See ya...you will be missed (muchly)!

*Aka Carroll Edwin Spinney, I believe...

Shedding Bucketfuls of Pretentious, Patronizing Tears ...as the Condescending Virtue-Signallers Speak Out on Behalf of their fellows (leadership in all but name only)

Yes, we've reached a truly troubling moment in global history, whereby those making the loudest noises/shouting the loudest, jumping up and down and responding in the most raucous manner, are the ones automatically listened to, at least given priority #1 attention...while 'the quiet in the land', pursuing the 'even tenor of their ways', are simply sidelined if not positively ignored...

Regrettably, regretfully...to be continued (the clock having gotten the better of me yet again!)

(A couple days on)

Three 'incidents'/occurrences of *recent times sum up for me this increasingly prevalent malady. Though all are based here in my own God's Own/Godzone nation of Aotearoa-New Zealand, they can easily enough be reproduced in fairly close facsimile all around (especially) the (Western) world (portion thereof, anyhow). And, oddly, interestingly, even intriguingly enough, are associated - in the first two instances - with a certain (much-maligned) religion/religious grouping; and the third with a small ethnic minority here, which **in general has had a fairly good run of it, so to speak...

My citing of these various 'peoples' will simply be to show how - in stark and unflattering contrast - their so-called, supposed, indeed self-appointed 'champions' here have shown themselves in, comparatively speaking, a far less favourable, even arguably contemptible light...

...in both instances in sharp contrast to the image often presented, and indeed unsparingly sustained, by the mainstream media here...simply 'proving' yet again that things are rarely what they seem/ appear, and how as the Master Himself said on a few occasions,

the last will be first and the first will be last
(that is, 'in the great by(e) and by(e)')...

*As in over the past (almost) nine months, to be pedantically precise.

**By which I allude to my own personal involvement over around a third of a century with a large number of individuals from a Pacific Island (these days, 'Pasifika') background, as well as to how NZers generally tend to regard/treat Islanders. I'm certainly not referring to the shameful way that alleged 'overstayers' were treated way back yonder in the halcyon days of the Muldoon Government.

To Be Continued...

The Things that Really, Truly Matter...when all is said and done (perfectly illustrated by a leader truly worthy of the title)

True leadership on the world stage is truly hard to find these days - to rework a memorable refrain from a favourite hit of my early twenties, leadership (as opposed to 'love') [of] 'the lasting kind'...

...but such leadership appears part of the (character) makeup of German Chancellor Angela Merkel...

...whose visit to a Polish death-camp, *Auschwitz itself, of recent days... and what she had to say there... says everything that needs to be said as to why she - **rather than the present Portuguese occupant, however otherwise worthy he may well be (or not) - ought to be the person presently residing over the United Nations...  

Yes, were our present-day world really looking for calibre in its so-called leaders, it needn't look any further than Ms Merkel, such an intangible 'quality' being epitomized by her decision to visit Auschwitz 'at such a time as this', and thus register her ****fellow-feeling with and ****genuine sorrow for those who suffered so awfully and tragically at the hands of her very own nation only 70-odd years ago.

*Bamboozled presently as to the correct spelling...

**Installed (as in voted in) after a particularly hard-fought contest featuring our own former prime minister, Helen Clark, incidentally...and moreover one in which Clark was herself apparently 'pipped at the post' due to the 'rotational' chairmanship of the UN, the idea being that the one area (other than Aotearoa-New Zealand's own ***Oceania) that hadn't as yet had a United Nations Secretary-General was the former Eastern Bloc. So who better to have been chosen - even if 'in absentia' and drafted as it were into the position if need be - than the German Chancellor, coming as she did from the former Eastern Germany?

***A term rarely employed except by the UN to denote one of ten global regions...although said term does also feature in that 20th-century classic of classics, George Orwell's epoch-defining 1984.

****Please accept my heartfelt assertion here, that, for the time being, those two 'phrases' - i.e. 'fellow-feeling' and 'genuine sorrow' - are the only ones that come readily to me, though in both instances being an infinite understatement of the sheer awfulness of *****the Holocaust and my own long-held emotions surrounding it and its victims...

*****Incidentally, for all those with the stomach to look into it, Michael Drosnin's (I believe) two books, The Bible Code and The Bible Code 2, provide some incredible additional info thereupon.   

'Announcing'/Prefiguring a subsequent, 'immediate' Trio of Blogposts...covering the spectrum/continuum from Diabolically Devilish (& Serious)...Through to Truly Un-Comedic/Tragic...to Sad (if seemingly quite Trivial)

Please read on (i.e. these three subsequent posts), though two of my offerings are *rather brief/ succinct/concise, hopefully each of these is no less worth the read despite this, and perhaps you'll even glean some sort of connection between the three...and if so, trust me it's not intentional, but is more likely to be a (subconscious) product of my own 'stream of consciousness' thinking, and the things that tend to affect and move me the most, for either good or ill, woe or weal...

*In hindsight, my **second and ***third - rather than my ****first and ***third - blogposts were actually (or at least thus far) the shortest (though all will eventually be rectified)...

**My 'second' one being the one immediately following this blogpost (i.e. the one on global leadership)

***/****My 'third' one being the next one (on pretentious tears), and my 'fourth' one being the next one (upon the untimely demise of Big Bird)...

...bearing in mind that the way these all appear upon my blogsite seem to show them in the opposite way numerically-speaking...though all three were posted by me upon the selfsame day (i.e. December the 9th).

Outrage - Offense - Umbrage - may well be (and indeed are) 'in the eye of the beholder'...and it has been rightly said that people tend to see what they expect/want to see...-but please, spare us your hyper-sensitivity 'just for the [sheer] sake/hell of it'!*

Following on from yesterday's poetic post - and, incidentally, there's much I've been exercised over recent days/weeks/months/years to say on the subject, including especially a still uncompleted *blogpost entitled 'Making a man an offender for a word' (awhile ago) - let me (as) briefly say (the following)...

Whenever you or I - or the very next person, for that matter - get upset/riled up/offside with anyone about anything at all, there's (get ready for my deep-seated insight, folks) always a reason why... Yep, I warned you profundity was just around the corner! But hear me out...just a little longer, I beg of you...

Yet, however utterly and thoroughly outraged you or I get/become, as psychologists and other careful students of that perennial beast, the human organism, are wont to tell us, nobody can actually 'make' you or me angry...it's ever and always a choice we make, and a decision on our part...others can only influence us in any particular direction, they are never directly responsible for our response, however legitimate that response might well happen to be...

So, yes, people - whether presidents of 'great' nations, or, for example, in/famous celebrities and entertainers of various stripes and hues, such as actors/actresses, singer/songwriters, comedians/ comediennes and even that most humble of wits, the old-fashioned (newspaper) cartoonist - incidentally, a much-underrated vocation I've ever aspired to and even plied my hand at on a few occasions over the past two decades-and-a-half or so - may well and often do offend anyone or even, on the odd occasion, pretty much everyone...

...whether through their strong, even arguably rabid, redneck views...on almost any number and variety of contentious, controversial matters...or occasionally simply through their sheer insensitivity, their complete lack of empathy for others and their legitimate feelings and sensitivities...

Or even - believe it or otherwise! - simply because they have the **odd knack of seeing things a little differently than Joe and Jane Bloggs...and in such a way that - for the most part anyway - ye 'average citizen' cannot help [***themselves], they find said observations genuinely 'funny, ha-ha'; yes, even when those (laugh-inducing) insights happen to run counter to their own (however staunchly held) political views...

Yet, I pointedly ask, even beseech (of) you, is that any real reason for you or I to get on our haunches and mount our high horse, to fly into a frenzy and whip up a fury, to get our knickers in a knot and/or organize a parliamentary petition, even - in our utmost extremity - initiate a boycott...of this, that and the next one [i.e. person/outfit]?

Well, yes and no, I suppose...depending on how deeply we feel about a particular matter and how much someone else (in their clumsiness, insensitivity or sheer stupidity) has happened to upset/rile us up...

And each and every one of those particular responses are no doubt perfectly legitimate and understandable in all too many conceivable situations especially 'these days'...

Yet if we perennially 'sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff' (according to one wag whose book upon the subject was a gift to me from a sibling years ago)...we'll doubtless wear ourselves thin, stress ourselves (and everyone around us) out, even give ourselves a hernia while contributing in a worst-case scenario to a nervous breakdown (and far worse)...

...and where will that ultimately get us or our cause or achieve for us in the long run, I mean, really?

*Posted on 17th January. N.B. also blogposts of August 25th, November 29th and December 9th/11th.

**Hence, ipso facto, they have the special gift/talent of cartooning - of 'making' folk laugh due to/through their 'unusual', perceptive and above all witty and well-drawn, 'take' upon things. Or even - wonder of wonders! - their ability to see through all the superficial dross of political spin and put their fingers on something solid and tangible, occasionally - as an inevitable by-product - destroying some of our most cherished sacred cows in the process...

**Yes, I know I should've put 'him/herself' (both being in the singular), but I happen to prefer 'themselves', however inaccurate the grammatical construction...

The Outrage Industry Becoming Industriously Outrageous...

...& that's putting things awfully mildly, even understating them to the extent of effusive euphemism.

I have a specific occurrence in mind,
something which has put a certain someone
in somewhat of a bind;
it's true, he's in deep doggy-do-do
through no-one's but his own boo-boo.

You see, he transgressed an unspoken rule
to ever and always observe the Golden Rule;
in this case, to put himself in the place
of ye proverbial hyper-sensitive 'We Too-er',
to not put too fine a point upon it...

But he meant no ill, it was simply
the result of his lifting his quill,
flourishing it for all to see;
and see they did, and were none the happier,
but could he possibly envisage
they might verily disparage his image?

But all is not lost, a new day is coming,
one in which all things will be put right:
the angry will be becalmed,
the offended will be removed from harm,
the aggrieved will be given soothing balm
and cartoons will no longer alarm!

But Having Said All That...an Untypical Plaudit to a politician I'm not terribly enamoured of: Education Minister Chris Hipkins...for: a Lavish As ("Election Bribe") Splurge on Schools? -No, Something Else Altogether...

Essentially, and *not before time, for now - at long last - moving to greatly ameliorate the longstanding **outlawing of teachers (and aids etcetera) using 'restraint' upon the ***'charges' in their care...

*But in all fairness the selfsame could just as justly be said for the preceding 'anti-nanny State' Government of John Key/Bill English...

**Unless the status quo is non-legislated, and 'simply' schools themselves forbidding due discipline of those in their care...by which I (obviously) mean the usage of non-excessive 'force' in order to coerce said kids away from problematic and into more constructive behaviour...

***A quaint term, I'll readily concede, but I happen to like it, and it does happen to describe or at least 'cover off' the 'duty of care' that all educational institutions - whether of/at a primary, secondary or tertiary level - in fact 'owe'/are obligated (by law) to provide for their 'clientele'...

To Be Continued...

Not, Never Ever - Even Once (unlike a sibling) - a National Party Supporter, Much Less Voter...But, it's Getting Awfully Hard to Avoid the Increasingly Inescapable Conclusion...that the present Government - numerous and significant NZ First 'wins on the board' notwithstanding - is looking increasingly shonky...shabby...and shaky - with due apologies to our canine 'cousins'!

To Be Continued...