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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postscript (and Encouragement to read my footnotes below):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...and not for the better...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...the blogpost immediately before this!

-David 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

to leave the European Union...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postscript:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a time in which Jesus warned His true followers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spoiling for a Fight - and back again: Trump Masterfully Pulls Back from Precipitate Brinkmanship with Iran (in the very nick of time)

Trump Administration cabinet members Bolton and Pompeo seem increasingly spoiling for yet another war in the Middle East - and potentially the worst yet (in terms of regional/global geopolitical consequences) - seemingly, as if for no other 'good' reason, than simply to fulfil their own eschatological view/understanding of endtime events...

This worrisome trend (about which I've written in (recent) times past) got kicked into gear bigtime during the tenure of George W (with his 'neo-cons'), and appears to have now gone into overdrive under his far more contentious (second) successor Donald J Trump...

But let's pause and give 'the Donald' a modicum PLUS of credit, he hasn't and didn't start(ed) a Middle Eastern WW111 - thus far, anyway...but has evidently put the Iranian leadership upon notice that he and his Administration mean business, and won't brook any more funny business from Tehran...

Though surely it'd have been far more worthwhile to have pursued President Obama's nuclear agreement with the Iranians, however fraught and problematic they may well see it to have been. Something was better than nothing, even if all it did was buy some needed time for the world, so that it might once again pull back from the final few minutes upon the Doomsday Clock...

Was DJT's reaction/non-reaction all just a stunt and empty bluster, as per usual? Somehow I doubt it, but (returning to my third para above) it does indeed seem to have been done in order to call the Iranian Administration's bluff...

But tread exceedingly careful, Mr Trump - and (even more so) 'associates' - hornets' nests have been well and truly stirred up over a heckuva lot less. And if you're seeking to take a leaf out of JFK's own (in)famous brinksmanship over the Bay of Pigs/Cuban Missile Crisis, beware what you (inwardly/ secretly) 'wish for', once the genie's out of the bottle it's awfully hard if not impossible to bring it back...

But if you're determined and bloodyminded enough to keep on keeping on courting an all-out war with Iran, methinks you'll eventually secure such...

...with all its horrific consequences, not least of which will be Tehran's all-out assault upon Israel, yes, as long foretold in the sacred scriptures...

But don't expect to earn any brownie points with the One Above for prematurely seeking to bring about His prophecies, it's called presumption/presumptuousness and for such there's never ever been any biblical sanction whatsoever...  

Coming Out Once Again - No, this ain't what you're supposing - Why I am no longer able to consider myself a left-winger

There comes, so 'they say', an opportune moment in the history of individuals, which, when seized/taken 'at flood-time' (as per the legendary Robin Williams' 'carpe diem' motto - in his inimitable role in the late, great Dead Poets Society), 'leads on to victory' (or success) in one's particular venture (or undertaking).

Sadly - for me, anyhow - that, or more aptly those, moment/s, have rarely been grasped in time...

Nevertheless, as per the equally classic hit, 'What a Wonderful World' (I believe it's called),
though I might not know much about [the duplicitous ways of the world, and so-called relationships and the like]...

one thing I do know...

...is my own mind. And though that might not strike anyone as especially profound, 'know thyself' is a dictum with credentials going way back (into times of antiquity, such as the days when Greek and Roman philosophers expounded their mental wares - as the Apostle Paul so aptly depicted when engaging with such upon Mars Hill in Athens as he crisscrossed ancient Europe - and 'Asia' - to share the gospel of Christ Jesus with an unbelieving world he and associates were accused of having "turned upside down").

A truism which has well and truly not only survived but even come down to our own day and age in the equivalent notion that 'the unstudied life is not worth living'. Moreover, ever believing that one needs 'to one's own [true] self be true'...

I must, without further ado...upon this my 418th blogpost across my two blogsites - 341st on this site, alongside my 77 already posted upon

http://Nuff Said:Consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com)

i.e. 4 +1+8 (=13), or 3+4+1[8] + 7+7[14] (=22), or 8+1+4 (=13)...for this biblical numerology buff (and one-time would-be numerologist cum professional astrologer (of either the 'western' zodiacal or Chinese animal variety)), an interesting if not especially 'lucky' (as in propitious) numeral...

- and no, I don't believe Jesus' betrayer, Judas, has been given the bad or 'bum' rap that some biblical revisionists have been all too eager to bestow upon him -

(I must, I say) declare the following...

When I look around me these days, in as objective a fashion as I am able...at the various fads and fashions of our political life and times...

I can unashamedly and unequivocally state that it is not the likes of Mao Tse-Tung, Josef Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky et al whose political theorems and dictums captivate and win me over...

but the lonely band of once were fellow travellers...such as Eric Blair (better known as George Orwell of Animal Farm and 1984 fame)...Malcolm Muggeridge, a contemporary of Blair's...the peoples of the old Eastern Bloc nations and former Soviet Union (or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)...New Zealand's own John A Lee...among whose ranks I've little doubt 'the hero of our nation', 'Big Norm' Kirk, would be found today...even Australia's Mark Latham, now evidently a federal senator for One Nation in the Australian Parliament...and America's own Robert Kennedy, I've more than an inkling...

For when I look - as objectively as I am able - 'around about me' these days...

...and cannot but help seeing legions of ropable, almost possessed groups of (especially) youth - and well-educated, professional, middle-class 'warriors' (wo)manning the barricades across the Western front...with the kind of zeal and yea, fanaticism, once reserved for and ever and always exclusively associated with 'religious fundamentalists' and their fellow-travellers...

...when I hear the incessant calls and catchcries to shut down legitimate debate and discussion - and even, moreover, upon that longtime bastion of free speech, the college/university campus; of the nonstop entitlement-fuelled-demands for 'rights, rights, rights' - with nary a whisper or murmur for equivalent or commensurate responsibilities; of the depiction of opponents of such as hatemongers and 'phobes' (of various distasteful varieties) simply for having the audacity, the nerve, the sheer, unadulterated gall to utter an unpopular opinion or express a genuine, heartfelt conviction...

I simply cannot help but be inexorably reminded of the two aforementioned classic tomes...

which, alongside the equally classic, if altogether different (but philosophically akin) scholarly lifework of a certain psychologist by the name of Dr James Dobson, Dare to Discipline,

pretty well sum up the disastrous Western social experiment which is (not so much the early 20th Century's socialist/communist surge (even in the West), but) the 'new' (ideologically-saturated, revisionist, 'postmodern', yes, even culturally ('Gramscian') Marxist) 'morality' of the 1960s and beyond...

But 'those who learn nothing from history are doomed to repeat it'...that is, if they get the chance to.

No, my beef is not with those clamouring, no doubt justly and honestly, for urgent action worldwide upon climate change - to provide one salient illustration of my aforementioned remarks; it is indeed an honourable thing to have a passion for life and the living, for ecological survival, or, as it's now termed, (an ethic of) 'extinction rebellion'...

But when you caricaturize your opponents as subhuman, when you not only belittle them as people and deny them the right to put an alternative perspective but you insist that your view is the only legitimate one and it's your way or the highway, when you begin to shout them down and hound them from the public square (or its equivalent in the digital era), when you characterize them as evildoers and inveterate, incorrigible despisers of the so-called 'progressive, enlightened' values you so assiduously champion and vehemently, even vociferously propound and propagate...

...when you distort and misrepresent, then mock and ridicule (your mischaracterization of) their deeply held convictions, then hold them out as some sort of public pariah -

 (as one salient example thereof, but far from the only one by a very long shot): no, not only hateful white supremacists but also 1080 opponents, 'anti-vaccers', and - believe it or otherwise - even (generally quite) thoughtful anti-fluoridationists...among those now excluded, evidently, from Facebook et al...i.e. from legitimately engaging in legitimate public debate...

'scuse me for saying so, but your own authoritarian, totalitarian, yea, even fascist, tendencies

are starting to show...and no, it ain't a pretty picture, folks, it most definitely is nothing of the kind!

Epilogue/Disclaimer/Postscript...See other blogsite (as above)...-you won't be disappointed!

Oui, Je Suis Ivan Golunov - We're With Ya, Buddy...

Je Suis HONG KONG: We're With You, Folks...if only in heart and soul...and earnest, heartfelt thoughts and prayers

Though, after the longest spell 'off-blog[posting]' since early last December...19 entire days, it's long past time I got my a into g (as per tonight's blogpost - and all the rest well and truly 'owing')...

I've almost gotten out of the habit of writing...

...and so I should've gotten on (here) first thing this morning...

...though another long-established - and personally deeply important - habit (or several) intervened...

That all - quite necessarily, in my view - being said...

let me simply say that the aforementioned (title) expresses my personal sentiments - and that of, I would dearly hope, many/most other kiwis -

-though you'd hardly guess or suppose so by our society's gatekeepers, the mainstream media, these days-

Could I simply refer anyone interested in the above to a blog I posted upon February the 20th entitled

'So What is a Self-Respecting Nation to do? Vis-a-vis the 'Peoples' Republic of China: Come Cringingly Under the Dragon's Beguiling, Hypnotic Spell...or Stand Free in Our God-given Liberty? It's a No-Brainer, Folks'

And ditto for those concerned about the plight of the Wega people...and the long-suffering Tibetans.

We gain nothing at all by burying our collective heads in the sand, people, looking the other way and somehow pretending that the re-nascent Dragon is as gentle, peaceful and well-meaning as ye proverbial siamese cat or panda bear...

No, we do so - or rather have been doing so for some considerable time now - at our collective peril.

Or to cite the tenor of the remarks of a fellow upon the local (Newstalk ZB) Country Show late last week, the time's quickly coming when we'll have to */**choose...between our longtime ally the US of A, and this re-emerging colossus/behemoth of a grand ancient civilization, whose present designs appear anything but tame and friendly... 

*Though this comment might seem to suggest that my previous blogpost was about this very topic, it was not at all on my mind at the time...

...which, in light of the sheer number and variety of worryingly problematic current global issues and developments, and the  absolute immensity of problems and difficulties afflicting humankind in these increasingly fraught times, makes the 'coincidence' of such terminology all the more poignant...

**Though the option of 'neutrality' (as I mentioned to a gracious hitchhike driver just two days ago) that the self-respecting Swiss peoples have long maintained (and indeed as New Zealand Inc has itself long since traversed ever since the heady days of our 'late, great' leader Norm Kirk) is perhaps another way we could choose to go...

...and without any apology or sense of shame to boot...

...though in the far more important matter of the long-term trajectory and home of our very souls, I understand that that is an option we will never have...

Yes, as Jesus' Older Testament namesake Joshua declared to a rebellious people after they'd finally arrived in and effectively 'set up shop' in their Promised Land, and were no doubt smugly congratulating themselves on how well they'd done and what a wonderful people they were to have been so bountifully blessed by 'Jehovah Jireh [their] Provider'...

...we too - each and every last one of us, in fact - need to decide, without a whole lot of further ado, to indeed choose...this day whom we will (ultimately) serve...

...for the consequences, folks, are well and truly eternal in scope and magnitude...

Yes,

None of [us] can by any
means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for
him-

For the redemption of [our]
souls is costly,
And it shall cease forever-
That [we] should continue to live
eternally,
And not see the Pit[experience corruption]


But thank God that One Equal to Him - One Who was Very God of God Himself - Himself embraced our pitiful state and fully entered into our otherwise hopelessly, eternally lost estate...

taking on all its shame, agony and even - can you believe it - its prospect of eternal separation from (His own dear) Father-God Himself...

being prepared, if it had ultimately come down to it, to die eternally in our, the sinners', own place...

But Having Said That...I Can - Totally - Understand Where They're Coming From; Can I What!

Time eluding me as usual, I can only add - by way of necessary explication - the much-treasured words of a timeless hymn, by James Russell Lowell: Once to Every Man and Nation

...and I won't apologize for quoting these memorable and ever relevant words at least once before...

Once to every [hu]man and nation Comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side; 

Some great cause, God's new Messiah, Offering each the bloom or blight,

And the choice goes by forever, 'Twixt that darkness and that light.



Then to side with truth is noble When we share her wretched crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, And 'tis prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave [hu]man chooses, While the coward stands aside,

till the multitude make virtue Of the faith they had denied.



By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,

Toiling up new Calvaries ever With the cross that turns not back;

New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth;

They must upward still and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth.



Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;

Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong;

Yet that scaffold sways the future, And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.

Nuff said.

If another Newfangled 'Christian' Political Party is the Answer (to the woes of New Zealand Inc.), Excuse me, I Must've Missed Something Somewhere: Prithee Tell Me What the Question Was...

No, I mean really...

Get ready, folks, the *global Sunday laws, originating in the land of the dragonlike beast - 'with horns like a[n] (innocent Christian/Christlike) lamb, but [eventually] speak[ing] like a (Satanic) dragon' -

...are right upon our (nation's and world's) doorstep...

I kid you not...

*Long foretold not only by one regarded as having a prophetic gift by the modern-day remnant church, but moreover by the prophet of the Revelation, the beloved Apostle John himself...

...and rather easily established when sound biblical principles of interpretation are soberly, calmly and dispassionately employed...under the Holy Spirit's omniscient (and moreover Christ-exalting)  guidance...

All Out for a Decade + Shy of a Maiden (Century): Aussie's Battler Bob Hawke Dies...a legend in his time

Just three brief comments/observations I intend to record for now...

Firstly, in what was one of my most memorable if hardly first education in how the seemingly omnipresent and supposedly omniscient - and even omnipotent - news media operates...
both while living in Brisbane (1990-91) and after then returning to New Zealand, I saw how a restless as media, tired of the known quantity that was PM Hawke, kept on and on tugging at Hawke's coattails and continually agitating on behalf of a potential challenge by then Treasurer Paul Keating...which - in one of the dumbest political moves in modern Australian political history - and have they witnessed some dumb moves or what - eventually saw Hawke deposed by the cerebral Keating, who admittedly did win one subsequent election in his own right - before being soundly thrown out on his ear by Prime Minister-Elect John Howard in 1996...which thumping victory I even recall watching while nurse aiding (in the wee hours) at Wakari Hospital, Dunedin in early 1996...

Secondly, my own dear Mum once met (I believe, then trade union leader) Hawke at some social work conference here in Dunedin (I imagine back in the seventies sometime)...recalling my own 'serendipitous' bumping into Hawke's contemporaneous kiwi Labour Party politician/Prime Minister David Lange... while attempting to get a few dollars or so out of an NZ Post (ATM) money machine in the later nineteen-eighties (while the infamous '88 Dunedin conference was entering high (or deepest) dudgeon)...

To the idle but entirely harmless, even fairly friendly 'harangue' of a male passerby that "you won't get any money out of that machine" (alluding to the way the selfsame had been completely run down by the then economically very right-wing, deregulatory 'Labour' Government)...

PM Lange responded rather irascibly, in what to this punter anyhow seemed an entirely uncharacteristic outburst - let alone un-self-controlled spirit - irritably snapping: "Fun-ny, ha-ha!"

One hardly needs a spin doctor informing one that that petulant reaction was hardly the way to win friends and influence people, eh...

And thirdly, I've little doubt whatsoever - just like innumerable Aussie commentators, no doubt - that his death just upon the eve of Election 2019 can only be a plus for the chances of the (unjustifiably) renascent Australian Labour Party...much as that of NZ's own David Lange just prior to General Election 2005 helped seal NZ PM Helen Clark's own otherwise increasingly fraught re-election chances...

...and in Bill Shorten's case for a party utterly bereft (admittedly much like its opposite, presently governing 'number') of a political vision, good old-fashioned ideals and principles...

but what else would one expect in modern-day Western politics, especially those of the Aussie variety!

But Apparently Millennials Ain't All Bad...or, Can Anything Good come out of the 2000-on Generation? Evidently YES

To wit, according to Nicky Jackson of Health Watch, millennials - i.e. those born from the year 2000 on (of whom I've two nephews, so I'd better be careful in what I say, I suppose!)...to their immense credit, in my view...are, on the other hand (cf previous blogpost, though those referred to therein, i.e. the so-called 'snowflake generation', might more aptly be those of the 'y' - rather than 'z' generation), proving risk averse and safety conscious...

...in particular, shelving/shunning/eschewing the dubious pleasures of alcohol...

Newstalk ZB Early Morning Host (and interviewer) Mike Hosking logically responded (to NJ): "If millennials don't start [the habit of drinking], they won't continue [to do so]..." .

Indeed. A sentiment the wisest (hu)man who ever lived could well have echoed, declaring to one and all - willing to hear the unvarnished truth of the matter:

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging...and whoever is led astray thereby is not wise.

At Long Last, A Breath of Fresh Air - and Stark, Refreshing Realism - in an Era Pockmarked and Riven with Faux Outrage...and Not Before Time

This is how I sum up the effective assessment of University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Stewart/Stuart McCutcheon in his taped conversation on the 6 am edition of RNZ National's pre-Morning Report today...

...as he declared the results of his careful, thorough investigation - in the post-Christchurch paranoia and witchhunt under every conceivable nook and cranny of New Zealand's dark underbelly for white supremacists throughout NZ Inc.

To the very specific and well-publicized allegations that Auckland University itself was a potent breeding ground, or at least melting pot, of white supremacists, McCutcheon declared: it was not even white supremacy necessarily/as such, but racism...in the instances cited before him; and moreover [to express his sentiments in my own rather colourful paraphrased version] two such cases do not an epidemic - much less pandemic - make!

No indeed.

Yes, despite all the hoo-haa, the almost endless hullabaloo, navel-gazing, browbeating and smug, self-righteous indignation and virtue-signalling self-flagellation engaged in seemingly relentlessly by all and sundry throughout the length and breadth of God's Own ever since Aotearoa-New Zealand's very own '9/11'...nothing significant had been uncovered.

No, two instances out of a varsity population of 40,000-some hardly constituted a crisis...-or, as the likes of that prescient discerner of hidden reality, Aesop himself, might have put it: two swallows do not a summer make. No indeed. And until more substantial evidence was presented to him - not more merely anecdotal hearsay - the Vice-Chancellor would remain of that viewpoint...

Postscript:

To the unmistakable deep dissatisfaction of the journo covering the story, evidently...who helped RNZ shortly thereafter craft a self-serving 7am headline item seeking to effectively rubbish the VC's conclusions...and, in a self-serving attempt to save face, obscure the case with lots of heat but little extra light...

Hey, the truth hurts, folks, doesn't it - but please, oh please, don't use that as an excuse to shoot the messenger (of unpleasant facts and realities) that you wish were not the case.

It's known as objective, balanced, fair-minded journalism, folks...something you'd be wise to learn up on...if you fancy a legacy of being real, true-dinkum journalists...

...but no, I'm not losing any sleep imagining you're teachable enough to profit by the lesson...any time soon... As they say, dreams are free - and apparently in great supply of late...

Yes, I'll admit it certainly suits the obvious as partisan political purposes and underlying agenda of unbalanced 'snowflakers' to put abroad such spurious rubbish - and at every available opportunity - but that don't make it fair and reasonable journalism, folks... 

Yes Indeed - 'All [Religions] are Equal, but' - most definitely - 'Some are [a whole lot] more Equal than Others...

Two 'small but significant' news items contributed to - gave me the impetus for - what will follow forthwith...-to wit, a Newshub (6 pm Sunday May 5th, TV3) News item (and a follow-up by, I believe the morning host's name is, Tim Dower, on Newstalk ZB this morning); and an all too pertinent observation by Newstalk ZB British correspondent Rod Little just under two weeks ago...

But last things first...as they don't say...

The modern-day genocide of Christians throughout the Middle East...

is finally getting some media coverage, and in NZ Inc's mainstream media no less...

and moreover upon a TV channel not always known for its sympathies toward those of the Christian faith (at least in Western lands and/or the strictly orthodox, evangelical, 'fundamentalist' variety)...

So all credit to TV3, which has long been - far and away, in my un-esteemed opinion, anyway - the leader in the 6 pm slot (whether upon weekday or weekend nights) for its lengthy and thoroughgoing backgrounders upon overseas issues of interest (to me, myself and I, anyhow)...

Victoria - no, not Wellington - University's longtime and well-respected Professor of Religious Studies, Peter Lineham, thereafter was invited to give his own evaluation of just why it is that the horrific treatment of Christians in the Middle East has been so ignored...

But 'sadly', this'll have to be continued...following sufficient shuteye, a rare quantity indeed of recent times...

As I was commentating...

Said news item cited British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt as bringing this matter to the world's attention (among hosts of others, of course - if anyone (in Western media) was even listening)...

...mentioning for example that upwards of ninety-(five-)some percent or so of Middle Eastern Christians were no longer such...whether through persecution, torture and/or killing, emigration (economic or as regular ole refugees) and/or otherwise (doubtless including 'forced' conversions)...

And so, for instance, whereas 10-15-20% of Middle Easterners had been (at least nominally) Christians (in the early-to-mid 1900s or so), that number had now plummeted to well-nigh 1/2 %.

Professor Lineham cited three essential reasons for this dramatic change...which he (as the newscasters themselves, along with Minister Hunt) had no qualms whatsoever in deeming a modern-day genocide: 'extremist' -esp. Islamist (read: Sissii Internationale, Hocus Bedlam, and Les Kebabs) 'elements'; 'complicit (M/E) governments' not wanting to be seen to be sympathetic with such a (dissonant) minority religion and its (national) adherents; and the "erroneous idea" that somehow or other Christianity was a religious "import" into the Middle East, whereas the (rather easily ascertained) truth of the matter was and is that the Christian religion traces its origins way back to those very lands themselves...

Necessary Postscript:
The very reluctance of media (especially the Western variety, it seems) to get involved in covering this was put down to (what can only be deemed a perverted sense of) political correctness, especially odd when the Christian religion is seen in its true context as an ancient faith being effectively wiped out and driven from its ancient homeland...

...and the (equally perverse) fear of being seen as somehow or other - by such 'sympathetic' coverage - condoning or sanctioning what (some in the West, equally erroneously) perceive as colonialism, i.e. the quite frankly rather bitter and twisted idea that Christianity in such an automatically assumed 'Islamic' region of the world was a species of just such outmoded, antiquated Western cultural domination of supposedly less enlightened parts of the globe...

Part Two (A Disturbing but Classic Example of the Aforesaid):

As an obviously quite unapologetic Brexit supporter, some in the media may not give him much time
- even if his views might well happen to represent those of up to half the British population, and at the very least a substantial proportion thereof...

....but I've found Newstalk ZB's UK correspondent Rod Little pretty discerning in his regular assessments of the state of play in the politics of those much troubled isles, at least since paying particular attention thereto in the aftermath of the June 23rd 2016 referendum...

And so, in light of - upon this occasion - recent world events, I paid more than the usual interest immediately post-Easter 2019 when he phoned in for his regular one-two minute chat with, not the usual morning host, Mike Hosking, but on this occasion, Christchurch-based talk host Mike Yardley...

And the gist of their very brief conversation pretty well 'said it all', and only added an exclamation mark to those aforementioned observations...

Assuming that neither would be at all upset or even concerned about my doing so, I'll defer here to simply 're-playing' for your 'enlightenment' and 'education' that very tete-a-tete...-having spent the best part, I imagine, of an hour listening and re-listening thereto a little prior to it being effectively relegated to station files (at the regular expiry of the week-long podcast etc availability of said radio transcript) a week or so ago...

But again for that you'll have to wait another day (or two/three)...yet suffice to say, coming as it did in the immediate backwash of the church bombings in Sri Lanka, the discussion carried some disturbing undertones indeed...I verily kid you not... 

Part Three (Succinct and Sobering Remarks Upon Western Media's Portrayal of all things Christian):

On the morn of April 23rd, as I tuned into Newstalk ZB, I heard the following conversation between Mike Yardley and UK correspondent Rod Little...which, I believe you'll agree, speaks for itself...

MY: "Let's move onto Sri Lanka, the awful news from Easter Sunday, the fatalities...What's been the British reaction to Sri Lanka?"

RL: "...Pretty muted...because nobody's come out and said there should be a commemoration for Christian people killed in the bombings [presumably referring to those that have been held for families of the Muslims massacred in Christchurch on March 15th]... 

No-one's tried [to identify] who could be the culprit, who may have been involved...it's as different from what happened in New Zealand as it's possible to imagine...

So no curiosity about who the perpetrators were and no great sympathy for the [families] of the people killed... ."

MY: "Wow - that's pretty stark...isn't it!"

RL: "It is pretty stark...and even this morning on the main BBC News programme they're saying someone else may be responsible...say [local] Buddhists...and we know they're not doing it...

So there's kind of this denial...

So all this good stuff New Zealand witnessed...and it was good...disappears when the shoe's on the other foot...when it's Christians being persecuted...

And there's a degree of anger about this in Britain...a great deal of anger growing about this at the moment... ."

(Italics used to highlight the vocal emphases.)

Indeed, nuff said!