"The Only Thing We Learn from History is that We Learn Nothing from History": Humanity Apparently Doomed to Fulfil This Doleful Reflection upon Life as Last-Day Events Move Stealthily and Steadily Along, and Homo 'SAPIENS', Whilst revisiting and Commemorating one of the Darkest, Most Unbelievably Shameful and Hideous Moments in Human History, Puts All the Pieces in Place and Does Everything in its 'Omniscient' Ignorance to Recreate the Conditions that will Unfailingly Lead to A 'Second' Holocaust, one also Instigated Against 7th-Day Commandment-Keepers...

To Mark the Passing of Someone who - with Amazing Insight yet Expressing Such with Profound Simplicity - Rightly Discerned the Character of his Own People ('kiwis'): Adieu to Noted Historian and Freelance Journalist - and Latterly RNZ National Panellist - Gordon McLauchlan

Inconsistencies Abound - in Many, Arguably Even Most Quarters - In Polarities Upon Matters/Issues of the 'Right-to-Life'...

...whether the particular issue in contention happens to be abortion - capital punishment - war - euthanasia - 

-eugenics/cloning etcetera...

As ever, (much) more to come, as time and opportunity allow...

'To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven'; even to THUS reach my 555th blogpost ever (upon all my three blogsites combined)

More in days, weeks, months, (and possibly even years) to come, folks...

...as I reflect upon my blogging over the past 7-and-a-half years...

...upon my three blogsites, i.e. this one - http://davidedwinisms.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/) -
http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/) - my original blogsite - and my very latest, located at http://supacalifragilisticexpialidocious.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/)

and in so doing - hopefully - provide not only some enlightening statistics (of all sorts) upon which places (i.e. nations and continental regions etcetera) are regularly 'tuning in' to this particular *'blogwidth', the sorts of stuff (that especially with the great benefit of reflection I can see that) I've been communicating about...or at least attempting to...

*There you have it, my second newfangled word in only a few days or so... 

Deciding Whether An Embryo Constitutes a Viable Human Life - Or Otherwise - is the Only Thing That is Important (in the Ever Contentious Matter of Abortion): Yes, (Acclaimed Writer and Moviemaker and all the rest!) Michael Moore, Once Again You're Spot-On: Your Logic is Impeccable, Watertight, Utterly Incontrovertible

Now as I come back to this particular (title only) post I realize that it's not quite the way Michael Moore said it, so stay tuned to coming instalments...as I, however briefly, return to what to my mind anyhow constitutes one of the all-time most insightful and profound yet incredibly simple public pronouncements upon the issue...

especially so, and all the more amazing, incredible and potentially shocking, even 'scandalous' from one in the vanguard of all things Leftwing in America and whose words have potentially serious implications for those on *his side of the arena, those in the forefront of the 'pro-choice' movement...

*Admittedly I cannot be dead certain about that, except that the tone of voice he used and the 'knowing way' he spoke with Amy Goodman of 'Democracy Now' the other day (a week or so ago) suggests without a shadow of a doubt that he is not among the 'pro-life' camp, that'd be pretty certain.

...Unless You're looking Down the Barrel of Untold Evil and Calamity Unheard of, that is, in Which Case it's one's Positive Duty to Raise Up One's Voice like a Trumpet, and yes - "Mr President" - show you, your - and "My people" their - transgression, and 'the house of Jacob' their [very] sins...

Apparently the American President is displeased with those who fail to do just that (*afore-blogged thing), i.e. ever 'look upon the bright' - and only and ever bright - 'side of life'...

But who could really blame him these days, beating on about the positive is really pretty well all he has left going for him...hoping and believing (against hope), trusting and (fervently, desperately) praying - though I doubt with ye good 'ole biblical 'sackcloth and ashes' or fasting! - that 'all these things' will, as in **an old-fangled, well-known magical incantation, just simply vanish of their own volition...

So choose/seek to "reject the prophets of doom and the perennial prophecies of the Apocalypse" as much as you may, "Mr President"...

...but the "jeremiahs' in your midst have been bidden to speak, and you forbid them at your own peril!

*So who says one cannot employ creative licence to create new words and terminology upon one's own blogsite?

**Though highly tempted to repeat this age-old magical formula (as in the very words thereof), I'll desist doing so, only too well aware of the undoubted and not inconsiderable 'power' - for evil and woe - that such occultic sayings really do have...

...and so I'll carefully and prayerfully revisit all my old blogposts sometime (sooner than later, hopefully) on all my three blogsites, especially my first and second, to root out and extirpate any and every such reference found therein...that I, in a moment of less care and more self-indulgent bravado, believe I may well have carelessly indulged in in times past...

To Be Continued...

"Al-ways Lo-ok on the Bri-ight Si-ide of Life"...Another "Goodie" and Python kicks the bucket: We'll Miss your Unique Sense of Humour, Terry Jones...-Here's Hoping you Discovered 'The Meaning of Life' in time, yes, 'The Life of Brian' - i.e.That (Life) of the Messiah Himself... That 'Naughty Boy' Nazarene!

Kudos [Credit, Fame, Renown, Prestige] & Acclaim to Camilla Cox: A Gutsy, Courageous Champion of the Underdog: in a Day & Age of Mealy-Mouthed Mousy 'Men'

Let me simply quote the (online) news release, which repeated the gist of what Ms Cox so eloquently presented upon the nightly news (of one of NZ's 6 p.m. TV (1/3) bulletins, and probably both)...

*A **feisty, determined and no-nonsense, 'take no prisoners' campaigner in full flight - and just beginning (to get into her newfound stride), Caroline Cox declared as follows:

"We have [walked?] 300 [kilometres] to make a change for our child and for all the people we have met on our long journey to arrive here and to have people bickering about 50 metres...

Our families are dying, families are being torn apart, and we have small-minded people bickering about 50 [metres] in a public space...

I'm furious and I'm disgusted and I'm disappointed with our politicians..."

*This introductory paragraph, incidentally, is entirely of my own creation, like it or lump it!

**Yeah, I know, such language in description of a female these days is - how shall I put it - 'off bounds', politically incorrect (to the nth degree and well beyond), misogynistic and all the rest...

Hey, who asked you to read my blogsite, anyhow?  ***Or for your opinion?

***Apologies, I have ipso facto by running this blogsite (and its original 'associate'), and moreover I even posted a couple or few - upon that very matter, i.e. the relative dearth of comments ever posted thereupon by all and sundry...

But it sure don't mean I have to agree with you, does it!?!?!                 

But Insults to the - Even Aotearoa-New Zealand's Own - Jewish Community Continue to Fly: Not Only is Another Synagogue Graffitied (with nary a report thereof (that I've come across, anyway) upon State-run Radio); But Our 'Progressive' Government Is Apparently Not Sending Anyone to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary Since the (Post WW11) Liberation of Aushwitz

Shame on you all, you supposed champions of 'minority rights' and 'oppressed communities' and the like...

And prithee tell me where that valiant defender of human rights worldwide is to be found in this impasse? I speak of course of Gohriz Ghahraman, the Green Party's spokesperson on such things.
Naturally, nowhere at all, but what would one expect...

But no credit to the previous crowd either, for despite Gerry Brownlie's strident criticism thereabouts vis-a-vis 'this lot', evidently back in 2010 they did the selfsame, i.e. stuff all; sweet nothing...and under New Zealand's first ever Jewish leader to boot!

Disturbing 'Developments' from a Disparate Duo, Deutschland and America: Shameful and Shameless Egregious Affront to the Legacy (& Memory) of the United States' Foremost Exponent of Nonviolence and Civil Disobedience, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, in Guntoters' Descent upon Virginia upon his Celebrated Birthday; Whilst the Land that Gave us 'Schadenfreude' Witnesses Some Judge Handing Down a Sentence of - wait for it - 11! Years' Imprisonment for a Gory, Ghoulish, Ghastly Piece of Demoniacal, Devilish Dastardliness Which Germany Arguably Hasn't Seen Since the Third Reich

...and time here sadly doesn't permit me to add something which at least at first blush strikes me as rather hideous and in extremely bad taste all round: i.e. the portrayal of arguably the most evil man in history - a fairly hefty 'achievement', admittedly - in a comic, side-splitting portrayal...

...I speak of course of - what has thus far been conveyed via the media, anyhow - 'JoJo Rabbit' (or whatever it's called), the cinematic account evidently of Adolf Hitler through the eyes/lens of an imagined kiddie friend of his...

Putting Putin Back in For Life...-So Why the Virtual Conspiracy of Silence Thereabouts by the Western Media? -Why, They've More Important Matters to Attend to - NOT. Or, While the Mice are Away Playing, the Cat Gets Ready to Pounce!

'Graciously' Giving Someone the Benefit of the Doubt...when they sing to your own personal songsheet, that is...-But when the shoe's well and truly upon the other, opposite (political) foot, well, hey, that's an altogether different matter entirely!

Welcome, folks - 'wherever you roam'...no, not to the admission that 'the waters around you have grown', but to the era of petty partisan politics personified...

And no, on this particular occasion I speak not of or about the presidential impeachment trial presently underway in the U S of A, but to a much more mundane matter altogether...

...i.e. the spat between Democratic senators Sanders and Warren...

So, no, I don't believe it's really such a big deal that the Democratic Party presidential hopeful, the idiosyncratic, iconoclastic, inimitable and irrepressible - &, yes, occasionally *irascible - independent Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, is alleged to have suggested at a private meeting with his Democratic Party rival, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, that 'a woman could not be elected American president'.

Even were he to have actually suggested, or frankly flatly stated, as much - and I'd defer to Sanders' innate sense of honesty and integrity over Warren's any day (quite literally, it oozes from his every pore) - what would such a statement even mean anyway?

Possibly nothing more than his sense - as a longtime and however idealistic, ultimately pragmatic political operator - of what's actually achievable in the realm of U.S. politics...or at least likely to occur anytime soon...

...much as a fellow - admittedly male - American varsity student assured me way back in 2005 (I believe) when I was back at the University of Otago as a mature student, i.e. that (the continually tentative presidential contender) Hillary Clinton 'had no chance of becoming American president'...

yes, simply - essentially - for being a woman, though carrying the Clinton monicker was likewise no great asset either... And why, pray tell me? Just that he didn't believe the American people were yet ready for a female leader.

However, post America's first black president, I doubt it'd now be such a high hurdle for Americans to get their heads around...and personally I suspect it was the perception of Hillary as somewhat of **a socialist - believe it or not - that was the real limiting factor, oddly not such a limiting factor for Bernie himself (according to much opinion polling at least back in 2015/2016)...

*Like the rest of us, surely...

**Yes, someone told me this upon a bus once (while sojourning in the U S of A back in the early nineties whilst Mrs Clinton's 'beloved' was himself ***swanning (or perhaps the more apt term is ***'swooning') around the White House, ***ogling interns in and around the Oval Office...

...she being perceived as the far more leftwing and hence dangerous quantity by many Americans ...though admittedly at the same time being respected as a person of principle therein unlike her chameleon-like spouse...-my, how things've changed (vis-a-vis Hillary Rodham Clinton anyhow!)

***I jest of course, the sort of stuff William Jefferson has long been accused of amounting to a heckuva lot more in both 'qualitative' and 'quantitative' terms than such cute phraseology would suggest, and for the reader's interest going so far beyond 'mere' adultery and fornication to embrace sexual assault, and moreover rape, and also - in cohoots with Hillary - the planned and systematic elimination (i.e. murder) of any number of individuals who threatened to spill the beans upon them.

For those seriously interested in pursuing this further - those, that is, who aren't so readily fooled by the Clinton-loving media and politically partisan commentariat and their Hollywood acolytes who regard the aforementioned (the first two well-established accusations, that is) as either a bit of a bad joke (it only being a pity he was found out) and/or all a big conspiracy by right-wing talkback hosts and the like, I suggest looking up what I regard as my equal seminal work...

...alongside a 22-page 'backgrounder', 'Pope Francis the First: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, or 'surprise, surprise': Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? (written in the weeks following the unprecedented elevation of a card-carrying Jesuit to the Roman Catholic Church's top position) in the first half of 2013...

a 42-page 'opinion piece' (I've presently forgotten the long-winded, highfalutin' title to!) posted on August the 22nd, 2016 in the run-up to Presidential Election 2016, which article (& mini-tome) gives viewers/readers an insight into what this punter believes the unusual, even sensational and thriller-worthy tale of what really was behind the selection of Donald J Trump as Republican Party nominee for President, a tale (if true, which I still believe with every fibre of my being, nothing having transpired in the interim to repudiate that interpretation in any way) that, I kid you not, is not only a whole lot 'stranger than fiction', so to speak, but which if established in or by a court of law would cause such repercussions politically and every other way that the second civil war that the nation has appeared inevitably heading towards over recent years, especially since that fateful election, would almost be a fait accompli, way ahead of when it might otherwise have seemingly occurred...(though for various reasons I don't anticipate it ever coming quite to that particular pass, if only just).

Part Two: So What am I Really Trying to Say Here? (All will be revealed in the not too distant!)

Awhile On (Tuesday the 21st)

The major point I'm making, or at least seeking to, is that...
...isn't it so interesting how such an allegation, which would doubtless raise merry hell if it were attributed to the likes of Donald Trump et al - or have hell to pay (for it) - would, were it alternatively linked to another prospective Democratic presidential challenger, speedily lead to calls, yea demands - and those none too polite! - for that person's speedy exit from the presidential race altogether...

Sorry, will need to leave this again, for me 'ole mate Sir Barry Humphries is callin' once again... 

Let's Hear it Loud and Clear - and with Bells and Whistles (and all the rest) - for Australian Sir Barry Humphrey's new (Tuesday evening) nature doco

This latest series (which started airing just last week) is essentially required watching...

Except for the equally mandatory/obligatory obsequious curtsy to the theory of evolution (and climate change for that matter), whatever one's personal views on either...

said show ticks all the boxes...

Yes, it's simply hard to commend it enough (even if I'm - of necessity, I must say - writing this in moments snatched from the show's numerous ad breaks; and hence necessarily missing many minutes of the program)...

So where do I start/what can I say? Let me list in bullet-point fashion its noteworthy, commendable features:

*Sir Humphrey's inimitable and altogether excellent, 'broadcast-worthy voice'...replete with proper and tone-perfect elocution and emphasis, enunciation and articulation...

*The excellent, almost perfectly ideal match between subject-matter and commentator...

*The very 'subject-matter' of Australia at the present moment in time...

*The beautiful, exquisite (especially upon show #1) and varied colours, contours, contrasts (and comparisons)...of the landscapes/scenescapes/panoramic views and vistas presented, done in the most wonderful kaleidoscopic fashion (as one would expect of such a high-calibre individual presenter)...

*The name of the show itself - The Magical Land of Oz: I love it!

There's only one major downside/drawback (from this particular punter's perspective, anyhow), one that really has nothing whatsoever to do with either Sir Barry or the 'topic' of his beloved Australia...

It's simply that - in terms of nature shows and commentary - it seems to me anyhow as if it'd have been 'right and proper' (and moreover, downright respectful and all the rest) ...

...to have noted and commemorated the recent passing/death of celebrated naturalist David Bellamy with one of his own special nature documentaries, if not instead of, at the very least in addition to...

...Humphrey's incredible offering...

But Before I do so (over subsequent days), "now for some light relief" (as either of the two Ronnies (Barker or Corbett) might have expressed things): All Hail to NZ's 'Unruly Tourists' (Summer (January) 2019), as per the hilarious offering late this afternoon of one Tim *Roxborough (Newstalk ZB talkback radio host)

Assuming he'll be gratified, even flattered - imitation being the best form thereof (and all that sort of thing) - firstly let me simply commend anyone reading this to view Newstalk ZB's 'Week on Demand' (and specifically 4.36p.m. through 4.38p.m. this afternoon; though the tiny two minute-long segment is introduced by the selfsame Tim *Roxborough by citing the time as '25 to five' (when it - pedant that I am; and so's you can locate the particular little section I'm referring to - was in fact 24 minutes to the hour))...

*Though the spelling seems wrong to me, from memory I do believe it to be correct...

To Be Continued...

Nature Red in Tooth and Claw - Survival of the Fittest - Climate Change a Trojan Horse for Far Less Savoury Agendas: In a New Series on 'Mother Nature' and Homo Sapiens' Subtle, Complex and Complicated, Intricate Interrelationship with...

...no holds will be bared, and secret agendas presently being advanced and expedited with all the intensity and passion and single-minded 'intolerance' of evangelical fervour will be exposed...

Hold onto yer seats, folks, as, in coming days and weeks, we explore some of the innate self-contradictions in today's self-complacent 'environmentalism'...

Things These Days As Often as Not Are Not What They Initially Appear: Let's Explode One Prevailing Myth That's the Very Epitome of 'Fake News' - or, When the Newfangled, Intolerant As (So-Called) 'LEFT' Doesn't Get its Particular Way and/or Can't Abide a Particular Outcome, It Apparently Has No Trouble Rewriting the Rules of the Game or Redefining the Terms of the Discussion (etcetera etcetera etcetera)...

To Be Continued (in the reasonably foreseeable)...

From (the Eventual but Long-Coming) Global Publicity about its Treatment of its Ethnic Uighurs, through to Hong Kongers' Lost Patience with its Democratic Pretensions, the 'People's Republic' now Suffers a Third Blow in Taiwanese Voters' Massive Repudiation of Mainland China's Encroaching Suffocation of its Courageous Small Island Offshoot

An Honest Admission at Long Last from a Region and a 'Regime' Not Normally Noted for the Same: (However 'After the Fact' and Ultimately Essentially Futile - and even Face-Saving and Squeezed Out - Such an Apology may well be, nevertheless) 'credit where credit's due': Iran's Government and Military Establishment's Mea Culpa is at least a start, and ideally would (but tragically won't) presage a new chapter in global politics...

Present-day Fulfilment of (Misunderstood and Misapplied/Misconstrued and Mysterious) Biblical Prophecy about the Role of Great Britain as the Latter-day Incarnation of the Israeli Tribe of Ephraim...as Brexit Enabling Legislation Enacted in British House of Commons yesterday (New Zealand time)

To Be Continued...

Permutations Upon the Aforementioned Continue to Dominate, and Resonate/Reverberate...- i.e. vis-a-vis the Aussie wildfires & the Iranian-American Stand(Back)off ...I mean, what other major matters are presently dominating Western media? (My mistake, or rather, due apologies to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex!)

Some serious thoughts and reflections after some significant shuteye...

Some days on (Monday January the 13th)...

Though the following comments/observations/opinions were hurriedly scribbled down whilst listening to and immediately following the BBC's *Ben James' excellent world news bulletin early Friday morning (NZ time), as he commandeered their 'OS' programme from the London Newsroom...and thus may well appear my attempt to be 'wise after the fact' in view of what has since transpired internationally vis-a-vis the Iranian Government's attempts to obfuscate and duck-shove and otherwise extricate itself from an awful airplane catastrophe above its own capital city, Tehran...

...I'll trust my readership to accept that the following are my very own unvarnished opinions in the aftermath of/fallout and washout from the aforementioned, though I've somewhat adjusted certain aspects in a little (title only) blogpost yesterday (Sunday the 12th)...

So rather than now (after the fact) myself adjust what I had to say then, I'll simply put it as I did then.

If - with forensic precision - 'taking out' the military mastermind of/behind Iran's Machiavellian Middle-Eastern strategic manoeuvres is 'murder'...as the Iranian masses and even members of parliament are apparently declaring, as they chant "Death to America!" in a frenzy 'worthy' of the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 Queen Jezebel-fed prophets of the groves as they "cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them"...

then prithee tell me what would blasting to smithereens a planeful/planeload of innocents - Iranians, Canadians, Ukrainians, Afghanis, Brits, Germans, et al - over Tehran...coincidentally, at the very time a scary 'near thing' between that very nation and the U S of A was being narrowly averted...?

Sadly - but predictably, and that despite the usual beat-up upon (Mr) Trump (admittedly in this case for his own typically reckless piece of '[un]statesmanship' which essentially precipitated the Iranian response and global crisis) - the footprints of the Iranian regime/military are all over it...

And what does that portend/presage? Hey, you decide, but somehow it ain't pretty, as most of us have long since surmised, wherever we may be upon this rather fraught and troubled orb in space...

*It's awfully hard to find words sufficient to praise this particular journalist, **whose commentary/ analysis, interviews and other material this morning...upon the American-Iranian escalation/standoff, the fallout from/aftermath of the Aussie bushfires especially vis-a-vis how its animal population has fared and the recriminations over just who was and is ultimately responsible, plus smidgens later on concerning both China's ethnic Uighurs and the United Kingdom's problematic and protracted Brexit

...have been excellent, impartial and of the highest journalistic standards, a very rare thing to be able to say these days, in this era of highly partisan, ideologically-driven, politically predictable prattle...

...particularly in view of the metaphorical bloody nose that said BBC has been (arguably rightly) served by members of the British public for its somewhat biased coverage of the UK's ongoing Brexit
twists and turns, permutations and other meanderings here, there and pretty well everywhere...

Indeed Mr James' contributions to this single 'episode' (of OS) (plus his various other similar inputs over recent weeks, months and years) - alongside his colleague Jo Fidgen's own regular offerings to superior journalism (with her signature 'Outlook' programme that regularly features (through the wee hours weekdays NZ time)) - are of such a sufficiently high, almost unparallelled standard to warrant each being nominated for an Emmy (or whatever the award might be) for their superlative and even-handed informative journalism, which, as I suggest here (and oftentimes elsewhere) is such a rare thing these days. It's difficult to be too fulsome in tribute to either journalist, I assure you...

**Straddling the 6a.m. to 7a.m. time bracket (upon Dunedin, New Zealand's Hills AM Access Radio network, a station which weekdays (Tuesdays through Fridays) then broadcasts the 'award-winning' New York City-based Democracy Now radio programme also for a full hour...

To Be Continued...

'Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good': The Battle's been joined, folks ...War's only a matter of time

"...and a happy new year" - NOT! Christmas musings/ reflections/reveries rudely interrupted...by: Aussie bushfires - wild winds (and associated electricity shortcircuiting) (Dunedin)citywide - worrisome warmongering presaging major (regional, if not actual(ly) world) war on imminent horizon (I kid you not)