Friday, February 28, 2020
(You're Just a) "Little Fella": 'Short People Got No Reason...Got No Reason...to Live...Short People are Just the Same as You or I': Again, take your choice, but for me, myself and I, alongside musical legend Paul Simon and the Global Midgets Society Incorporated, I'd Prefer to Defer to the Latter (Notion)...You see, I'm Likewise Somewhat Height (not to mention Physique!) 'Challenged'
And Though the Jury Still Seems Out - Global Media Hype Notwithstanding - It Would Appear the Coronavirus ('Covid 19') Could Well Be the Worst 'Pestilence' in Living Memory; or, Alternatively, A Far Tamer Version of the Good-Ole-Fashioned 'Flu': Take Your Pick, The Arguments are Pretty Strong Either Way
But for ye mainstream (Western, anyhow) media to now be getting so dumbstruck about people (such as here in Auckland, New Zealand) becoming duly beside themselves and 'hunkering down' as it were by stockpiling bulk supplies from local supermarkets of recent days...
...methinks, anyway, is just a tad (or two) rich...
Duh, what d'ya reckon has caused such an extreme alarmist response/reaction?
...methinks, anyway, is just a tad (or two) rich...
Duh, what d'ya reckon has caused such an extreme alarmist response/reaction?
Though Petulantly Blaming President Trump for All the World's Ills Seems to Know No Bounds...
-as today's (New Zealand) edition of 'global award-winning', New York-based (and New Zealand broadcast) radio show "Democracy Now' *has overreached itself in doing...
*Or at least an intriguing university professor/lecturer **Sonia **Sligh interviewed by host Amy Goodman on Friday, February 28th (NZ time) in my opinion has, in somehow managing to link the U S President in with other xenophobic, conspiratorial and/or simply pig-ignorant responses to the present Coronavirus. Although admittedly her central contention has merit; that is, her thesis that it is all too easy to blame such diseases on the likes of 'foreigners' like the Chinese by framing them as 'foreign invaders' (of our supposedly 'healthful' Western lands), when doing thus and so is a way of effectively "obscuring our own (human) role in [effectively] developing [such maladies] [in the first place] [by] providing them a fertile breeding ground",
arguing this upon the basis of continual human encroachment upon global ecosystems (as a part and parcel of ongoing climate change)...
...and in particular the effective eradication of numerous habitats for bats, which happen to be the most common species of mammal (by a longshot)...
Interestingly, as per a talkback caller upon either Marcus Lush' Newstalk ZB Show the other evening or that of Miles .......... overnight, the bat being one (indeed the very last specified) of the 'unclean animals' cited in Deuteronomy 14:18 amidst the rather extensive lists of such verboten animals (livestock, mammals, birds, fish, rodents et al) in that Older Testament book (14:3-20) and that of Leviticus (11:1-30/31(-)41-43(-)46/47, especially in this case verse 19).
*Hopefully my spelling is correct - in both instances (i.e. first and surnames)...
*Or at least an intriguing university professor/lecturer **Sonia **Sligh interviewed by host Amy Goodman on Friday, February 28th (NZ time) in my opinion has, in somehow managing to link the U S President in with other xenophobic, conspiratorial and/or simply pig-ignorant responses to the present Coronavirus. Although admittedly her central contention has merit; that is, her thesis that it is all too easy to blame such diseases on the likes of 'foreigners' like the Chinese by framing them as 'foreign invaders' (of our supposedly 'healthful' Western lands), when doing thus and so is a way of effectively "obscuring our own (human) role in [effectively] developing [such maladies] [in the first place] [by] providing them a fertile breeding ground",
arguing this upon the basis of continual human encroachment upon global ecosystems (as a part and parcel of ongoing climate change)...
...and in particular the effective eradication of numerous habitats for bats, which happen to be the most common species of mammal (by a longshot)...
Interestingly, as per a talkback caller upon either Marcus Lush' Newstalk ZB Show the other evening or that of Miles .......... overnight, the bat being one (indeed the very last specified) of the 'unclean animals' cited in Deuteronomy 14:18 amidst the rather extensive lists of such verboten animals (livestock, mammals, birds, fish, rodents et al) in that Older Testament book (14:3-20) and that of Leviticus (11:1-30/31(-)41-43(-)46/47, especially in this case verse 19).
*Hopefully my spelling is correct - in both instances (i.e. first and surnames)...
Fire-and-Brimstone-Bearing Firebrand Sanders Trumps the Donald Each and Every Time...
Though I 'cannot', despite being a *lifelong dual (kiwi-American) citizen, in good conscience vote for him in this year's pivotal, even perhaps epochal, presidential election - were he the **eventual Democratic Party nominee - simply because he doesn't 'tick all the boxes', at least those that preeminently matter to me...
- that raw and ***real as, rough diamond political maverick (senator) from the northeastern shires of Vermont, personal/family ****namesake Bernie Sanders,
beats - hands down (and all the rest) - that slithery, snake-in-the-grass, snake-oil merchant *****from the Bronx, Donald J Trump, each and every time...
...whether he eventually succeeds in his presidential gambit or otherwise...
...just as the real-deal, ******finger-lickin' stuff his erstwhile equally-famous namesake 'Colonel Sanders' produced would ever trump that of a two-bit amateur, and likewise the unvarnished truth-teller ever and always trumps any and every purveyor of fake news...or, in 'the Donald's' case, an inimitable practitioner of super-*******nationalistic Machiavellian manoeuvring and realpolitik...
*Possibly a lifetime citizenship (i.e. commencing at my birth, though as we know with one-time chess champion Bobby Fischer, by no means guaranteed one for life), though the reality of said status was only latterly acknowledged and confirmed upon my applying for a U S passport back in 1992 (or so) prior to moving there later that year for (what became) a three-year sojourn, said status indeed being denied those such as myself whilst the Reagan Administration bore sway...
**As he certainly deserved to be last time around, and was ultimately circumvented thereto by the machinations of the Hillary Clinton-supporting Democratic Party machine...
***Though, incidentally I hate/loathe/absolutely, heartily detest that ever-present inanity (of clicheville) of late, "The reality is..."...
****Being often referred to in my high school days (as some of my siblings, especially brother, doubtless were) as "Bernie", "Bernina" (after the then well-known sewing machine), etcetera... In later years this has morphed into an older church member (elder in fact) occasionally using "Bernard"
- doubtless as a term of endearment...
*****I do believe (as my all-time fave singer songwriters Simon and Garfunkel might have put it)...
******Though truth be told I haven't tasted the stuff since becoming a vegetarian/vegan 35 years ago soon...
*******Actually 'penned' originally (in my draft) as supra-Machiavellian, but somehow-or-other that word denoting misguided patriotism slipped in, and ********seeing it now it doesn't seem out of place...
********Even conjuring up for me those timeless words of that great wartime British bulldog, Winston Churchill, who if I'm not mistaken - and I admittedly may well be! - first coined that memorable line that 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'...
Postscript (Tuesday March 3rd, following 'South Carolina' and just prior to 'Super Tuesday'; and as word has only recently reached God's Own of the retirement from the Democratic race of first Pete Buttigieg and now Amy Klobuchar):
Looks like the Establishment's at it again...ganging up upon Bernie Sanders just as it did last time around...c/o 'the man' himself ,i.e. (now former wannabe Democratic nominee) Pete Buttigieg...
...the very fellow who, according to Wikipedia, did a thesis or the like upon the standout quality of integrity Sanders brought to American politics (back in the day when Sanders was merely an independent senator from the state of Vermont)...
Go figure, folks...but the collective opposition is really a backhanded compliment, when you think about it, much as the devil 'himself' (or rather, 'itself', as H Scott Peck so ably argues in his seminal People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil)...
only ever sending his special forces, his elite troops as it were, after anyone truly posing a threat to his (very, very temporary, and soon to expire - bigtime - and in no uncertain terms) earthly empire!
Post-Postscript (Wednesday March 11th, NZ time...following Joe Biden's pretty clean sweep (thus far) of '*Big Tuesday', of the Michigan primary in particular)
Ask not for whom the bell tolls - mark my words: the death-knell's just (now) sounded for the American Democratic Party...post-2020, and a Trumpian victory, resounding or otherwise...it'll permanently, irretrievably, irrevocably, irreconcilably split into two major factions/rumps, and will thus never ever again wield federal/nationwide power in the United States of America...
*For want of a better descriptor (as per Mike Hosking this morn on Newstalk ZB).
- that raw and ***real as, rough diamond political maverick (senator) from the northeastern shires of Vermont, personal/family ****namesake Bernie Sanders,
beats - hands down (and all the rest) - that slithery, snake-in-the-grass, snake-oil merchant *****from the Bronx, Donald J Trump, each and every time...
...whether he eventually succeeds in his presidential gambit or otherwise...
...just as the real-deal, ******finger-lickin' stuff his erstwhile equally-famous namesake 'Colonel Sanders' produced would ever trump that of a two-bit amateur, and likewise the unvarnished truth-teller ever and always trumps any and every purveyor of fake news...or, in 'the Donald's' case, an inimitable practitioner of super-*******nationalistic Machiavellian manoeuvring and realpolitik...
*Possibly a lifetime citizenship (i.e. commencing at my birth, though as we know with one-time chess champion Bobby Fischer, by no means guaranteed one for life), though the reality of said status was only latterly acknowledged and confirmed upon my applying for a U S passport back in 1992 (or so) prior to moving there later that year for (what became) a three-year sojourn, said status indeed being denied those such as myself whilst the Reagan Administration bore sway...
**As he certainly deserved to be last time around, and was ultimately circumvented thereto by the machinations of the Hillary Clinton-supporting Democratic Party machine...
***Though, incidentally I hate/loathe/absolutely, heartily detest that ever-present inanity (of clicheville) of late, "The reality is..."...
****Being often referred to in my high school days (as some of my siblings, especially brother, doubtless were) as "Bernie", "Bernina" (after the then well-known sewing machine), etcetera... In later years this has morphed into an older church member (elder in fact) occasionally using "Bernard"
- doubtless as a term of endearment...
*****I do believe (as my all-time fave singer songwriters Simon and Garfunkel might have put it)...
******Though truth be told I haven't tasted the stuff since becoming a vegetarian/vegan 35 years ago soon...
*******Actually 'penned' originally (in my draft) as supra-Machiavellian, but somehow-or-other that word denoting misguided patriotism slipped in, and ********seeing it now it doesn't seem out of place...
********Even conjuring up for me those timeless words of that great wartime British bulldog, Winston Churchill, who if I'm not mistaken - and I admittedly may well be! - first coined that memorable line that 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'...
Postscript (Tuesday March 3rd, following 'South Carolina' and just prior to 'Super Tuesday'; and as word has only recently reached God's Own of the retirement from the Democratic race of first Pete Buttigieg and now Amy Klobuchar):
Looks like the Establishment's at it again...ganging up upon Bernie Sanders just as it did last time around...c/o 'the man' himself ,i.e. (now former wannabe Democratic nominee) Pete Buttigieg...
...the very fellow who, according to Wikipedia, did a thesis or the like upon the standout quality of integrity Sanders brought to American politics (back in the day when Sanders was merely an independent senator from the state of Vermont)...
Go figure, folks...but the collective opposition is really a backhanded compliment, when you think about it, much as the devil 'himself' (or rather, 'itself', as H Scott Peck so ably argues in his seminal People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil)...
only ever sending his special forces, his elite troops as it were, after anyone truly posing a threat to his (very, very temporary, and soon to expire - bigtime - and in no uncertain terms) earthly empire!
Post-Postscript (Wednesday March 11th, NZ time...following Joe Biden's pretty clean sweep (thus far) of '*Big Tuesday', of the Michigan primary in particular)
Ask not for whom the bell tolls - mark my words: the death-knell's just (now) sounded for the American Democratic Party...post-2020, and a Trumpian victory, resounding or otherwise...it'll permanently, irretrievably, irrevocably, irreconcilably split into two major factions/rumps, and will thus never ever again wield federal/nationwide power in the United States of America...
*For want of a better descriptor (as per Mike Hosking this morn on Newstalk ZB).
Thursday, February 20, 2020
And as for 'Do Gooders' Incorporated Who've Managed to Foist Upon So Many of us Unsuspecting Plebs Throughout the World their Sophisticated Notions of Reusables and Recyclables, well...Tell THAT to Ye Average Punter Now Having to Forego the Mighty Handy Use of Those Plastic Supermarket Bags Once Employed Very Handily for Lining Household Rubbish Bins and the like...
Whilst Methinks Oftentimes 'the Cops' Cop Just a Tad Too Much Flak, When - from Personal Experience of Late - Their Ranks are Chockablock Full of Some Really Decent Ladies and Gentlemen...
And whereas my (aforementioned) 'observation' most definitely pertains to my own beloved land of Aotearoa-New Zealand, and doubtless many other - *at least largely Western, or at least European - lands of the world...
I'll just as readily concede that the systemic police brutality, nay outright criminality, exposed so damningly by said media throughout the U S of A over the past few years...
does indeed give any thinking - and moreover truly feeling - man, woman or child due cause for concern, and for pause in being too footloose and fancy free with baskets of bouquets (in that particular direction), that's for sure...
*And no, my comment therein is hardly xenophobic or imperialistic etcetera, simply the result of well-studied listening in to various media channels over my entire lifetime...though at times, I'll readily concede a whole lot quicker than many others, selfsame 'media' (to greatly generalize about the mainstream purveyors thereof) is ofttimes far from the standard-bearer of truth personified (as the recent decrying of all things 'fakenews'-wise might tend to suggest (and thereby fool many folks))...
I'll just as readily concede that the systemic police brutality, nay outright criminality, exposed so damningly by said media throughout the U S of A over the past few years...
does indeed give any thinking - and moreover truly feeling - man, woman or child due cause for concern, and for pause in being too footloose and fancy free with baskets of bouquets (in that particular direction), that's for sure...
*And no, my comment therein is hardly xenophobic or imperialistic etcetera, simply the result of well-studied listening in to various media channels over my entire lifetime...though at times, I'll readily concede a whole lot quicker than many others, selfsame 'media' (to greatly generalize about the mainstream purveyors thereof) is ofttimes far from the standard-bearer of truth personified (as the recent decrying of all things 'fakenews'-wise might tend to suggest (and thereby fool many folks))...
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Yes, This Present World is Full to Overflowing with Folk who Ever and Only (Suppose Themselves to) Perceive the Splinter in the Eyes of Others...
...yet unfailingly fail to notice the glaring beam within their own...
However we are advised and warned in the strongest possible language and upon the very best authority, that
Judgment without (any/the least skerrick of) mercy will be [i.e. come to/visit]
those who have shown no mercy...
Yes, of such it might rightly be said, as it was of the baiting and caviling, quibbling 'lawyers', scribes and Pharisees who verily hounded Jesus Himself to His very death...
tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you
However we are advised and warned in the strongest possible language and upon the very best authority, that
Judgment without (any/the least skerrick of) mercy will be [i.e. come to/visit]
those who have shown no mercy...
Yes, of such it might rightly be said, as it was of the baiting and caviling, quibbling 'lawyers', scribes and Pharisees who verily hounded Jesus Himself to His very death...
tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you
The True Gems in This World are Those who - like the late, great, but generally underrated Mike Moore - are Gentle on ('liberal with') Others and Hard on ('conservative with') Themselves...
...as a speaker in my particular denomination once elucidated upon at one of our annual or biannual/ biennial 'old-time' 'big tent' religious camp meetings...
...rather than those who are all too regularly tough on others and easy-ozy on/with themselves...
The contrast between the two couldn't be more stark, and heart-warming and/or bone-chilling...as Yours Truly had the great mishap to experience/encounter firsthand (once again) only yesterday...
Thankfully my LORD and Saviour is and was and has ever been of the former class...
...and that, as they say, has made all the difference in the world...
...and indeed universe...
...for all those willing to accept it...
...rather than those who are all too regularly tough on others and easy-ozy on/with themselves...
The contrast between the two couldn't be more stark, and heart-warming and/or bone-chilling...as Yours Truly had the great mishap to experience/encounter firsthand (once again) only yesterday...
Thankfully my LORD and Saviour is and was and has ever been of the former class...
...and that, as they say, has made all the difference in the world...
...and indeed universe...
...for all those willing to accept it...
Friday, February 14, 2020
Sending Off A True Kiwi Battler: (Though I Can't Join With Those Offering Their Heartfelt Tributes), 'in spirit' I'm one with Those Today 'Bidding Adieu' to the Best Prime Minister Aotearoa-New Zealand Almost Never Had - and then But for the Very Briefest of Periods - the 'Right Honourable' MIke Moore...
Evidently with a Christlike heart, in possessing that rarest of 'Christian' qualities, the ability to forgive those who had upset/offended/transgressed against him. Regretfully such an attribute, which made him most like His Maker/Redeemer, was simultaneously a great, if not Moore's greatest, political weakness... (according to funeral reportage on RNZ National this evening; from words of his longtime acolyte, his successor MP (in Waimakiriri, Christchurch), Clayton Cosgrove, or 'M(ike) M(oore) #2' as he was apparently known)...
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Irish Nationalism Resurgent as Sinn Fein Stages Would-Be Electoral Upset in Irish Elections...
...though the post-election outcome is far from a done deal...whilst even recent Northern Irish polls - doubtless in the backwash from, and backlash over the United Kingdom's Brexiting, now all but a fait accompli - show how even a (if the barest of a) majority in that U K jurisdiction are now plumping for Irish reunification...
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
So Hitler's A Jokester? -What A Sick Joke! (Reflections Upon 'New Zealand's' Win for 'Jo-Jo Rabbit' (c/o Taika Waititi) at this Year's Oscars)
Valentine's Day, 2020: Explication for Such an 'Unpatriotic' Blogpost
Yes, I refuse to join with those - including the much-feted TV3/TV1 Hollywood reporter Kimberley Crossman (I believe her name is) - who've been - understandably enough, I must concede - virtually beside themselves with bouquets innumerable for the incredible Oscar success of noted Maori actor Taika Waititi in this year's just-completed award ceremony in the U S...
For who doesn't like to celebrate, and profusely, the success of 'one of our own' in such global 'fests'?
That all doubtless being true, even irrefutable, I will never ever 'celebrate' a film which - even conceded to by said Oscar-winner himself, and pretty well any and every commentator introducing the subject, even upon the 'great day,' itself...
...in any way, shape or form - if 'merely' by its clear as *midnight comedic animatronics thereabouts - thus 'papers over' and satirizes what is generally accepted as being the darkest chapter in human history...
next to the horrid, very public, shameful and shameless execution of this species' Very Maker...and Redeemer...upon Golgotha, Calvary's **Cross some almost 2,000 years ago now...
*Yes, the saying is 'clear as daylight', but whenever and wherever Adolph Hitler's deeds are mentioned, such a word cannot decently be used in the same sentence...
**And no, I'm not hung up about whether it was a crossbeam (as commonly imagined and depicted) or simply a tree 'stake', as in a single vertical beam - quite frankly, folks, it matters diddly squat!
Yes, I refuse to join with those - including the much-feted TV3/TV1 Hollywood reporter Kimberley Crossman (I believe her name is) - who've been - understandably enough, I must concede - virtually beside themselves with bouquets innumerable for the incredible Oscar success of noted Maori actor Taika Waititi in this year's just-completed award ceremony in the U S...
For who doesn't like to celebrate, and profusely, the success of 'one of our own' in such global 'fests'?
That all doubtless being true, even irrefutable, I will never ever 'celebrate' a film which - even conceded to by said Oscar-winner himself, and pretty well any and every commentator introducing the subject, even upon the 'great day,' itself...
...in any way, shape or form - if 'merely' by its clear as *midnight comedic animatronics thereabouts - thus 'papers over' and satirizes what is generally accepted as being the darkest chapter in human history...
next to the horrid, very public, shameful and shameless execution of this species' Very Maker...and Redeemer...upon Golgotha, Calvary's **Cross some almost 2,000 years ago now...
*Yes, the saying is 'clear as daylight', but whenever and wherever Adolph Hitler's deeds are mentioned, such a word cannot decently be used in the same sentence...
**And no, I'm not hung up about whether it was a crossbeam (as commonly imagined and depicted) or simply a tree 'stake', as in a single vertical beam - quite frankly, folks, it matters diddly squat!
The REAL Stink Ain't the 'Poor-Shaming Smell' Highlighted in the Oscar-Winning Film 'Paradise'...But the Stench of Double-Standards and Hypocrisy Emanating from This Year's (and Other Recent) OSCARS
February the 14th: Explaining Why I'm Declaring Such
Where do I - can I - even begin...?
Suffice to say (for the present) that the very folk who so demonize Donald J Trump - admittedly and undoubtedly America's worst president, by a country mile, ever - and bend over backwards to placate any and every possible nuance of heightened sensibility and sensitivity in our oh so peculiarly touchy (and feely) 'generation'...
...evidently have no qualms whatsoever about downplaying, sidelining, effectively belittling the - still, and doubtless evermore - raw sensitivities of survivors and loved ones of victims of this Planet's most atrocious sustained treatment of its own...
...which to her eminent credit the German Chancellor - unlike our own governments, both present and previous, of Aotearoa-New Zealand - has been anything but backward in making the focus of her dying days in office...doubtless, a cynic might add, with an eye to her long-term legacy...
Where do I - can I - even begin...?
Suffice to say (for the present) that the very folk who so demonize Donald J Trump - admittedly and undoubtedly America's worst president, by a country mile, ever - and bend over backwards to placate any and every possible nuance of heightened sensibility and sensitivity in our oh so peculiarly touchy (and feely) 'generation'...
...evidently have no qualms whatsoever about downplaying, sidelining, effectively belittling the - still, and doubtless evermore - raw sensitivities of survivors and loved ones of victims of this Planet's most atrocious sustained treatment of its own...
...which to her eminent credit the German Chancellor - unlike our own governments, both present and previous, of Aotearoa-New Zealand - has been anything but backward in making the focus of her dying days in office...doubtless, a cynic might add, with an eye to her long-term legacy...
And Yes, Bob (Sir Robert) Jones Sure Ain't the Only Fellow Who Simply Can't Suffer Fools Gladly...
Thursday February 13th: What I'm On About Here
And whilst the woman accusing Jones of blatant, unreconstruction-style racism, for which he is now in turn suing her for (character) defamation, is doubtless well within her rights to be upset, yea even verily outraged by Jones' (clearly satirical) opinion piece awhile ago (at least a good two years now, I believe)...
...hey, it's a free world and any and all of us (individually) have every right to be duly upset about any manner of 'stuff' currently 'going down' in our ever so fraught and fast-paced, frenetic and frantic, media-harried world these days...
...and moreover the absolute right and privilege to express ourselves thereabouts - people having gone to war and fought over this in WW11 and the like -
I nevertheless cannot but find myself tonight, following a lengthy 'snippet' from said trial upon TV 1's or TV 3's 6 p.m. Evening News Bulletin just a half hour ago or so, concurring with noted (independent-minded) Maori author/writer Alan Duff, who, at selfsame trial today, simply remarked...
...that though he'd never personally found Sir Bob Jones racist, more important still/by far from his point of view, was that
"there is an element in this country that takes offence at anything and everything...
...seeking to shut down legitimate debate..."
I couldn't have expressed it better myself...
Postscript (Midday, Friday the 14th of February - 'Valentine's Day', as fate would have it!)
Discretion ever being the far better side of valour (as I've occasionally stated over the blogging years, if in the more standard 'script')...
"Good on ya, (Sir) Bob", for having the presence of mind to gracefully withdraw your defamation suit; lest you - however inadvertently, otherwise be seen to join the ranks of the perennially outraged... though methinks suing for defamation - when(ever) one's 'good name' is being dragged through ye proverbial dirt and grime - is perfectly understandable, even right and proper...however (almost inevitably) unavailing, the way our injustice service works these days...
...my full understanding, even empathy thereabouts arising principally from a rather unpleasant, wholly unexpected incident occurring to Yours Truly only one-and-two-thirds years ago now...
...about which I've now (and hopefully never) any desire to 'regurgitate' (for public consumption), excepting to say/add that where one's reputation is concerned, seeking to redress that misconstruction, misrepresentation, misinterpretation is only entirely normal, a very human reaction and response to being unfairly (and even *maliciously) maligned...
*Though naturally the only sort of 'malign-ment' is ever and only of the malicious variety!
And whilst the woman accusing Jones of blatant, unreconstruction-style racism, for which he is now in turn suing her for (character) defamation, is doubtless well within her rights to be upset, yea even verily outraged by Jones' (clearly satirical) opinion piece awhile ago (at least a good two years now, I believe)...
...hey, it's a free world and any and all of us (individually) have every right to be duly upset about any manner of 'stuff' currently 'going down' in our ever so fraught and fast-paced, frenetic and frantic, media-harried world these days...
...and moreover the absolute right and privilege to express ourselves thereabouts - people having gone to war and fought over this in WW11 and the like -
I nevertheless cannot but find myself tonight, following a lengthy 'snippet' from said trial upon TV 1's or TV 3's 6 p.m. Evening News Bulletin just a half hour ago or so, concurring with noted (independent-minded) Maori author/writer Alan Duff, who, at selfsame trial today, simply remarked...
...that though he'd never personally found Sir Bob Jones racist, more important still/by far from his point of view, was that
"there is an element in this country that takes offence at anything and everything...
...seeking to shut down legitimate debate..."
I couldn't have expressed it better myself...
Postscript (Midday, Friday the 14th of February - 'Valentine's Day', as fate would have it!)
Discretion ever being the far better side of valour (as I've occasionally stated over the blogging years, if in the more standard 'script')...
"Good on ya, (Sir) Bob", for having the presence of mind to gracefully withdraw your defamation suit; lest you - however inadvertently, otherwise be seen to join the ranks of the perennially outraged... though methinks suing for defamation - when(ever) one's 'good name' is being dragged through ye proverbial dirt and grime - is perfectly understandable, even right and proper...however (almost inevitably) unavailing, the way our injustice service works these days...
...my full understanding, even empathy thereabouts arising principally from a rather unpleasant, wholly unexpected incident occurring to Yours Truly only one-and-two-thirds years ago now...
...about which I've now (and hopefully never) any desire to 'regurgitate' (for public consumption), excepting to say/add that where one's reputation is concerned, seeking to redress that misconstruction, misrepresentation, misinterpretation is only entirely normal, a very human reaction and response to being unfairly (and even *maliciously) maligned...
*Though naturally the only sort of 'malign-ment' is ever and only of the malicious variety!
Yes, Ye Constantly 'Outraged' Outrage Industry is Starting to Really Bug - Annoy - Upset, nay, Utterly Outrage Me...-I kid ye not!
3 Days On (Thursday the 13th of February): Yes, there'll be a whole lot more upon this matter in both this and other blogposts over coming weeks and months...
...yet even now it would appear that a crossroads of sorts has been reached - a high-water mark (zenith) leading to a subsequent and consequent nadir - and, as with the sacred cow of Political Correctness the public-at-large - at least throughout the Western World as such - is increasingly turning from it with loathing...
...seeing it for the shallow, superficial, emotive-driven react-ionary bit of flotsam and jetsam it most manifestly is (in all too many instances)...
...yet even now it would appear that a crossroads of sorts has been reached - a high-water mark (zenith) leading to a subsequent and consequent nadir - and, as with the sacred cow of Political Correctness the public-at-large - at least throughout the Western World as such - is increasingly turning from it with loathing...
...seeing it for the shallow, superficial, emotive-driven react-ionary bit of flotsam and jetsam it most manifestly is (in all too many instances)...
Speaking of Politicians Whose Star May Be Waning... Even If It Oughta Be Waxing...I Can't for the Life of Me Think of a Better Candidate Than 'Angela Merkel # 2'...
Friday the 14th of February (3 Days Later)
Though of course I know 'stuff all' about the woman primed and prepared, preened & predetermined to follow on in the not inconsiderable, even arguably herculean steps of the soon to retire, globally-respected and certainly redoubtable German Chancellor, the Eastern German-born and bred Angela Merkel...
...yes, off-hand I even *cannot state her name - my 'extensive', hastily-scribbled, copious notes thereabouts having been 'nicely' secreted to some obscure corner of the house (amidst the dust of my various and sundry pads et al) ever since hearing the news item upon a weekday edition of RNZ National's 'World Watch' midday radio programme (a couple days back)...
the two (main) 'issues' which were seen to have precipitated her premature downfall/demise were such as have been the bread-and-butter of my blogging of recent times, indeed even upon February 11th itself (when I made my initial, title-only blogpost thereabouts)...
To wit,
1: Making a joke at the expense of the ever super-sensitive trans (et al) community
2: Having the gall, the sheer temerity to essentially 'call out' the (internet-located) perennially outraged
...and for those 'high crimes and misdemeanours', doubtless worthy of the German equivalent of the threatened repercussions for the sort of things 'the Donald' has only recently emerged seriously 'scathed' through...
...she's evidently no longer a German leadership prospect, and so will no longer stand in succession line after Ms Merkel...
Utterly predictable, yes, but hardly a good development, especially not so for a nation which had heretofore pretty well dug itself absolutely and completely out of the rather sordid hole into which a one-time Chancellor with delusions of a new world order fashioned after his Aryan fantasies had well and truly dug the nation 70-some years ago now...
*Evidently (the tongue-tier) Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, though popularly referred to as 'AKK'.
Though of course I know 'stuff all' about the woman primed and prepared, preened & predetermined to follow on in the not inconsiderable, even arguably herculean steps of the soon to retire, globally-respected and certainly redoubtable German Chancellor, the Eastern German-born and bred Angela Merkel...
...yes, off-hand I even *cannot state her name - my 'extensive', hastily-scribbled, copious notes thereabouts having been 'nicely' secreted to some obscure corner of the house (amidst the dust of my various and sundry pads et al) ever since hearing the news item upon a weekday edition of RNZ National's 'World Watch' midday radio programme (a couple days back)...
the two (main) 'issues' which were seen to have precipitated her premature downfall/demise were such as have been the bread-and-butter of my blogging of recent times, indeed even upon February 11th itself (when I made my initial, title-only blogpost thereabouts)...
To wit,
1: Making a joke at the expense of the ever super-sensitive trans (et al) community
2: Having the gall, the sheer temerity to essentially 'call out' the (internet-located) perennially outraged
...and for those 'high crimes and misdemeanours', doubtless worthy of the German equivalent of the threatened repercussions for the sort of things 'the Donald' has only recently emerged seriously 'scathed' through...
...she's evidently no longer a German leadership prospect, and so will no longer stand in succession line after Ms Merkel...
Utterly predictable, yes, but hardly a good development, especially not so for a nation which had heretofore pretty well dug itself absolutely and completely out of the rather sordid hole into which a one-time Chancellor with delusions of a new world order fashioned after his Aryan fantasies had well and truly dug the nation 70-some years ago now...
*Evidently (the tongue-tier) Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, though popularly referred to as 'AKK'.
Three Politicians Whose Star May Be Rising/Setting - Waning/Waxing - But Whose Impact Upon Politics (Essentially 'for Good') in the Early 20th Century/2020 Appears Undisputed...
The 'candidates' (for my bouquets) being...?
The Irish leader...a 'wannabe' Scottish premier ('First Minister'), and a would-be U S President...
Valentine's Day, 2020
'Didya' guess (who my particular political 'notables' are/might be)? Leaving you now to surmise any possible connection you happen to see/discern between all three, they are (in the aforementioned order): *Ireland's 'Taoiseach' Leo Varadkar *Scotland's Ruth Davidson *America's Pete Buttigieg
Sunday the 16th...
In brief - and no, I won't be disclosing the 'connection' alluded to; until and unless, that is, one of you (i.e. my blogviewership) happen/s to come forth and make a guesstimate at least, coz hey, why should I do all the serious footwork, I mean, really?
- Anyhow, true to form - 'in the meantime' - I've somewhat resiled from one of my picks, and again, without my specifically stating which one, I'd like someone out there in cyberland to at least make another guess as to which one of these 'candidates' for blog-bouquetship I've now got serious second thoughts about, though it'll probably be fairly easy to guess from my subsequent 'treatment' of 'em all (in the next few paragraphs and/or days of mini-instalments herein)...
As to the (sequentially) first (as above), Ireland's 'Taoiseach' - hey, what a great word title! - I'll forego much additional for now, not because his re-instalment in the premiership there is doubtless rather problematic at present (as the recent Irish election resolves itself one way or t'other), but because I wrote reasonably extensively vis-a-vis Leo Varadkar -what I'm able to glean from this considerable distance, anyhow, and in view of the virtually nonexistent commentary over here about Irish politics (fullstop), excepting their two most recent and fairly well-publicized and canvassed referenda (on two of the major moral dilemmas/critical issues of our time on earth, i.e. abortion and same-sex marriage).
...about which - for those at all interested - I've written over the past year-and-a-bit in various and sundry blogposts (some of which are yet uncompleted), to wit
*'Partisan Political Paratrooper vis-a-vis Subtle, Serious Statesman: Though Championing a Similar Anti-Brexit Perspective, the Contrast Between Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn Couldn't Be More Gaping (September 12th, 2019, on david edwinisms)
*A Person's A Person No Matter How Small: [Pope Francis' Making A Moral Equivalence Between Contract Killing and Abortion Couldn't Be More Apt etc] Later in 2018 (I believe), and upon my original (now inactive) blogsite htp://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).
Sorry, time's been really squeezed with many unforeseen family commitments of recent weeks and months and I can't easily locate the exact info thereabouts, though those are pretty good 'stabs' therein...
To Be Continued...
The Irish leader...a 'wannabe' Scottish premier ('First Minister'), and a would-be U S President...
Valentine's Day, 2020
'Didya' guess (who my particular political 'notables' are/might be)? Leaving you now to surmise any possible connection you happen to see/discern between all three, they are (in the aforementioned order): *Ireland's 'Taoiseach' Leo Varadkar *Scotland's Ruth Davidson *America's Pete Buttigieg
Sunday the 16th...
In brief - and no, I won't be disclosing the 'connection' alluded to; until and unless, that is, one of you (i.e. my blogviewership) happen/s to come forth and make a guesstimate at least, coz hey, why should I do all the serious footwork, I mean, really?
- Anyhow, true to form - 'in the meantime' - I've somewhat resiled from one of my picks, and again, without my specifically stating which one, I'd like someone out there in cyberland to at least make another guess as to which one of these 'candidates' for blog-bouquetship I've now got serious second thoughts about, though it'll probably be fairly easy to guess from my subsequent 'treatment' of 'em all (in the next few paragraphs and/or days of mini-instalments herein)...
As to the (sequentially) first (as above), Ireland's 'Taoiseach' - hey, what a great word title! - I'll forego much additional for now, not because his re-instalment in the premiership there is doubtless rather problematic at present (as the recent Irish election resolves itself one way or t'other), but because I wrote reasonably extensively vis-a-vis Leo Varadkar -what I'm able to glean from this considerable distance, anyhow, and in view of the virtually nonexistent commentary over here about Irish politics (fullstop), excepting their two most recent and fairly well-publicized and canvassed referenda (on two of the major moral dilemmas/critical issues of our time on earth, i.e. abortion and same-sex marriage).
...about which - for those at all interested - I've written over the past year-and-a-bit in various and sundry blogposts (some of which are yet uncompleted), to wit
*'Partisan Political Paratrooper vis-a-vis Subtle, Serious Statesman: Though Championing a Similar Anti-Brexit Perspective, the Contrast Between Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn Couldn't Be More Gaping (September 12th, 2019, on david edwinisms)
*A Person's A Person No Matter How Small: [Pope Francis' Making A Moral Equivalence Between Contract Killing and Abortion Couldn't Be More Apt etc] Later in 2018 (I believe), and upon my original (now inactive) blogsite htp://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).
Sorry, time's been really squeezed with many unforeseen family commitments of recent weeks and months and I can't easily locate the exact info thereabouts, though those are pretty good 'stabs' therein...
To Be Continued...
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Thursday, February 6, 2020
A Rarely Non-Partisan Player - or At Least Temporarily So - Upon the Highly Partisan, Ideologically-Charged, Cultural Wars-Riven Stage of Modern Era American Politics: In Bucking the Trend of his Senatorial Colleagues - However Events Ultimately Transpired, Even If President Trump was Not Impeached (a Second, and Decisive Time) - the Former Republican Presidential Contender Mitt Romney Deserves An Accolade: He Carefully Assessed and Closely Evaluated the Evidence (For and Against the Merits of Such an Impeachment 'Indictment')...and Reached a Simply Explained, Unambiguous Conclusion - of "Guilty, Ma'am (and Mssrs)"...WHATEVER his 'Honorary' Colleagues Might Think, and WHATEVER the Political (as in Electoral) Repercussions (for himself personally)
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Making A Real (Heckuva, Helluva) Hoo-Ha Of Wuhan (China): A Global Epidemic, Nay Pandemic Sweeps the World, According to ye Mainstream (Western) Media ...Said Coronavirus Thus Far Having Claimed ...wait for it - (the grand total of) one, and now two! - people outside the People's Republic...
Without in any way seeking to downplay or minimize this serious health-related matter which has evidently claimed at least 425 citizens of Mainland China...
...it'd perhaps be useful to put things into a little perspective, such as the fact that every year evidently around 600,000-odd people die from ye ordinary, run-of-the-mill, garden variety 'flu' (as in influenza)...
So perhaps for once the Chinese authorities are not so very far off when expressing the utmost concern at the concurrent wave of (anti-Chinese) xenophobia increasingly - if fairly predictably - raising its ugly head in the fallout from the same, supposedly especially in the West...
....whilst at least for once acknowledging the Chinese Government's (c/o its local authorities) responsibilities thereabouts, vowing to bring the offenders to justice, and pledging better measures to prevent the same *'going forwards'...
*Much as I ever and always heartily detest the selfsame cliche, and I'm not for even a moment suggesting said powers that be employed such an abhorrent 'modernism'...
Postscript:
As with a blogpost I posted awhile ago now - vis-a-vis 'Raoul(sp?) Island' off the Bay of Plenty, to wit the tragedy afflicting visitors (mainly tourists) there when the volcano spent its long-gestated fury in no uncertain terms -
I can well appreciate the very tenor of my comments - in particular my long-winded, highfalutin' title - could well have struck some as somewhat insensitive, even heartless in view of the victims of said tragedies...
...and to that I'd have to concede: fair enough - as far as the immediate 'shock, horror' value of said comments and emphases is concerned...
However, vis-a-vis the ongoing Coronavirus, I feel compelled (as indeed I did even as early as over the wee hours following posting the same) to add the following...
...yes, if I can only - somehow-or-other - locate the same...
Postscript #1:
Indeed no less a leading light (luminary) than Steve Maharey, a senior cabinet minister in the Helen Clark Administration of 1999-2008 (here in New Zealand), upon yesterday afternoon's Newstalk ZB 'Gardening Show' with Jamie M(a)cKay, said pretty much the selfsame thing, using if anything even stronger language thereabouts...
...emphasizing the imperative - particularly in view of the (aforementioned) comparative global stats vis-a-vis ye 'good 'ole' garden variety (in)flu(enza) with its rather chilling number of fatalities annually - of keeping things in due perspective, making amongst many other similarly 'punchy' observations, one where he said that...
"There needs to be that caution...[lest we] overreach ourselves...[about how relatively dire this latest epidemic-pandemic truly is]...
...in view of what many of us, myself and clearly himself also, regard as an increasing media beat-up now fast approaching, yea surpassing - leaving in the veritable dust even - a veritable mass hysteria thereabouts...
...it'd perhaps be useful to put things into a little perspective, such as the fact that every year evidently around 600,000-odd people die from ye ordinary, run-of-the-mill, garden variety 'flu' (as in influenza)...
So perhaps for once the Chinese authorities are not so very far off when expressing the utmost concern at the concurrent wave of (anti-Chinese) xenophobia increasingly - if fairly predictably - raising its ugly head in the fallout from the same, supposedly especially in the West...
....whilst at least for once acknowledging the Chinese Government's (c/o its local authorities) responsibilities thereabouts, vowing to bring the offenders to justice, and pledging better measures to prevent the same *'going forwards'...
*Much as I ever and always heartily detest the selfsame cliche, and I'm not for even a moment suggesting said powers that be employed such an abhorrent 'modernism'...
Postscript:
As with a blogpost I posted awhile ago now - vis-a-vis 'Raoul(sp?) Island' off the Bay of Plenty, to wit the tragedy afflicting visitors (mainly tourists) there when the volcano spent its long-gestated fury in no uncertain terms -
I can well appreciate the very tenor of my comments - in particular my long-winded, highfalutin' title - could well have struck some as somewhat insensitive, even heartless in view of the victims of said tragedies...
...and to that I'd have to concede: fair enough - as far as the immediate 'shock, horror' value of said comments and emphases is concerned...
However, vis-a-vis the ongoing Coronavirus, I feel compelled (as indeed I did even as early as over the wee hours following posting the same) to add the following...
...yes, if I can only - somehow-or-other - locate the same...
Postscript #1:
Indeed no less a leading light (luminary) than Steve Maharey, a senior cabinet minister in the Helen Clark Administration of 1999-2008 (here in New Zealand), upon yesterday afternoon's Newstalk ZB 'Gardening Show' with Jamie M(a)cKay, said pretty much the selfsame thing, using if anything even stronger language thereabouts...
...emphasizing the imperative - particularly in view of the (aforementioned) comparative global stats vis-a-vis ye 'good 'ole' garden variety (in)flu(enza) with its rather chilling number of fatalities annually - of keeping things in due perspective, making amongst many other similarly 'punchy' observations, one where he said that...
"There needs to be that caution...[lest we] overreach ourselves...[about how relatively dire this latest epidemic-pandemic truly is]...
...in view of what many of us, myself and clearly himself also, regard as an increasing media beat-up now fast approaching, yea surpassing - leaving in the veritable dust even - a veritable mass hysteria thereabouts...
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Transforming the American Presidency into a Literal 'Bully Pulpit', or, A Bully IS as a Bully DOES: Or If 'it' Looks Like a Bully, if 'it' Talks and Sounds Like a Bully ...Hey, How's THIS for a Real Revelation, Folks: No Quibbles - Ifs, Buts or Even Maybes - About it, 'it' IS - Beyond A Shadow of a Doubt - a Real, Identifiable, Certifiable BULLY
Threatening one's (political) opponents and critics with all sorts of - however undefined, vague and tacit/implicit - potentially scary and violent consequences/repercussions...
...simply for speaking their mind and voicing those criticisms and that opposition...
...is the stuff and traditional territory of tyrants, thugs and the like...
-the equivalent in the public square and political sphere of ye traditional schoolyard bully...
...only too used to and keen upon (pretty well literally) throwing *'his' not inconsiderable weight around...
It is - or was - the well-frequented haunt of such former Western leaders as New Zealand's own Rob (**Sir Robert David) 'Piggy' Muldoon and America's own Richard Milhaus Nixon, who, 'alongside' such international 'luminaries' as the likes of Mao Tse-Tung himself - the 'Great Leader' himself of China's Cultural Revolution - had the habit of keeping 'little red books'...in the former two instances containing the names (and addresses and contact details etc) of vocal critics and political opponents...
Yes, none of these (three), to mention but a few, were themselves strangers to employing the full armoury of the state - and some pretty fancy personal footwork in Nixon's and Muldoon's cases - when it helped in furthering, in prosecuting their own (generally small and sordid) agendas...
No, they each/all had no, or at least very few, qualms whatsoever about engaging the not inconsiderable power, leverage and tools/weapons of the state (security apparatus - and all the rest) in forwarding their own personal vendettas at whosoever they perceived as standing in their way...
Likewise - yes, at last the penny drops, for those held in a state of now intolerable suspense - 'the Donald' (i.e. United States President Donald J Trump) has once again wandered - quite knowingly and deliberately - into some dangerous, if not altogether unfamiliar, territory...
...by - rather explicitly and even with no holds barred at all - giving it to and sticking the boot into his former National Security Advisor, (the extremely hawkish) John Bolton...as the latter (at least for a brief spell; that's now all of course well and truly ended), following the public release of his book, was used by the media and Senate/Congressional Democratic lawmakers as a foil against Trump as the prospect of his being subpoena(e)d to serve as a Senate witness in his (now soon-to-end) impeachment trial/s temporarily approached high dudgeon...
...just as the President had ***previously 'served it' to the likes of former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson...
- hey, is there some sort of pattern emerging here?
In the process, naturally enough, Trump readily evoked (fairly just-below-the-surface) memories of his 2015/2016 presidential election campaign rallies... in which, you'll well remember, he 'outed' various highly vocal and disruptive individual protestors, openly threatening them via his lackeys and rally attendants with some rather unsavoury and thuggish repercussions, even outright violence...
But yes, though it seems a supreme understatement and anticlimax to state so now, that is - however typical and even predictable Trumpish conduct and modus operandi - plainly and simply completely unacceptable and intolerable behaviour for any leader anywhere in any sphere of public activity...
...but of course all the more so for any sitting President of the United States of America, one who in the very next breath is boasting he not only warrants re-election to arguably the world's highest political position, but declaring it's effectively a fait accompli, even a 'slam dunk' sort of a thing...
*Though, hey, let's not be sexist here...the most egregious example thereof during this particular pleb's high schooling was 'one' of three gals ('classmates'), who, back in the halycon years of 1979-1980 or so, successively reduced three female music teachers virtually to tears - and, no doubt alongside a nervous breakdown in each instance, certainly an early retirement...as we went through that many in just the one year...
**No, honorary titles are sure as heck no respecter of persons, that's for sure...
***Doubtless now among numerous - innumerable - others, and yes, at this stage I've lost count...
...simply for speaking their mind and voicing those criticisms and that opposition...
...is the stuff and traditional territory of tyrants, thugs and the like...
-the equivalent in the public square and political sphere of ye traditional schoolyard bully...
...only too used to and keen upon (pretty well literally) throwing *'his' not inconsiderable weight around...
It is - or was - the well-frequented haunt of such former Western leaders as New Zealand's own Rob (**Sir Robert David) 'Piggy' Muldoon and America's own Richard Milhaus Nixon, who, 'alongside' such international 'luminaries' as the likes of Mao Tse-Tung himself - the 'Great Leader' himself of China's Cultural Revolution - had the habit of keeping 'little red books'...in the former two instances containing the names (and addresses and contact details etc) of vocal critics and political opponents...
Yes, none of these (three), to mention but a few, were themselves strangers to employing the full armoury of the state - and some pretty fancy personal footwork in Nixon's and Muldoon's cases - when it helped in furthering, in prosecuting their own (generally small and sordid) agendas...
No, they each/all had no, or at least very few, qualms whatsoever about engaging the not inconsiderable power, leverage and tools/weapons of the state (security apparatus - and all the rest) in forwarding their own personal vendettas at whosoever they perceived as standing in their way...
Likewise - yes, at last the penny drops, for those held in a state of now intolerable suspense - 'the Donald' (i.e. United States President Donald J Trump) has once again wandered - quite knowingly and deliberately - into some dangerous, if not altogether unfamiliar, territory...
...by - rather explicitly and even with no holds barred at all - giving it to and sticking the boot into his former National Security Advisor, (the extremely hawkish) John Bolton...as the latter (at least for a brief spell; that's now all of course well and truly ended), following the public release of his book, was used by the media and Senate/Congressional Democratic lawmakers as a foil against Trump as the prospect of his being subpoena(e)d to serve as a Senate witness in his (now soon-to-end) impeachment trial/s temporarily approached high dudgeon...
...just as the President had ***previously 'served it' to the likes of former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson...
- hey, is there some sort of pattern emerging here?
In the process, naturally enough, Trump readily evoked (fairly just-below-the-surface) memories of his 2015/2016 presidential election campaign rallies... in which, you'll well remember, he 'outed' various highly vocal and disruptive individual protestors, openly threatening them via his lackeys and rally attendants with some rather unsavoury and thuggish repercussions, even outright violence...
But yes, though it seems a supreme understatement and anticlimax to state so now, that is - however typical and even predictable Trumpish conduct and modus operandi - plainly and simply completely unacceptable and intolerable behaviour for any leader anywhere in any sphere of public activity...
...but of course all the more so for any sitting President of the United States of America, one who in the very next breath is boasting he not only warrants re-election to arguably the world's highest political position, but declaring it's effectively a fait accompli, even a 'slam dunk' sort of a thing...
*Though, hey, let's not be sexist here...the most egregious example thereof during this particular pleb's high schooling was 'one' of three gals ('classmates'), who, back in the halycon years of 1979-1980 or so, successively reduced three female music teachers virtually to tears - and, no doubt alongside a nervous breakdown in each instance, certainly an early retirement...as we went through that many in just the one year...
**No, honorary titles are sure as heck no respecter of persons, that's for sure...
***Doubtless now among numerous - innumerable - others, and yes, at this stage I've lost count...
'Mike' (Michael Kenneth) Moore: Despite Accruing A Mere Footnote/Asterisk in the (Minimalist) Wikipedia Entry (for his name), As Perhaps the Last Remaining/Surviving 'Gentleman Politician' of 1970s'/1980s' New Zealand Political Life and Times, Many will Only Remember a Supremely Decent Individual who ever and always Conducted himself upon the Political Stage Here with the Utmost Grace and Aplomb - and (Genuinely) Good Humour...and yes, also such Attributes as 'Street Smarts', the 'Common Touch', a Natural (and Positive) Populism, and Much Insight, Perception...An All-round Asset to the NZ Political Scene in Almost Every Which Way...
Saturday, February 1, 2020
"This Thing is From Me" - "Let God Be True, and Every Man a Liar"...saying, "My Counsels Will Stand, and My Purposes Will Be Fulfilled": Frail Humans Fail in Bending Every Effort and Manipulating Every Opportunity to Scupper Predetermined Divine Determination to Enable the United Kingdom's (once more Great Britain's) Decision to Exit European Union Entanglements
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