Greta Thunberg, Climate Activist Extraordinaire...But Where, Prithee Tell me, Will it All End...?

For as One said so aptly millennia ago, "if they do these/such things in a green tree, what will they do in a dry [tree]?"

Which, 'transliterated' best I know how, i.e. into modern lingo/settings, could be re-rendered thusly:
if, in an [i.e. our contemporary] era of relative freedom of expression and thought and 'tolerance'...such seeming mass hysteria - however well-intentioned - can be so readily stirred/ whipped up...then what will be done in the name of 'enlightenment'/the environment/'humanity' when all this [God-given] liberty and tolerance is summarily stripped away in a time of unprecedented crisis...when those 'unpalatable', discordant elements of dissonance and [yes, even] dissidence...will - much like the early Christians in Nero's Rome - be accused of being themselves the cause and instigator of the succession of natural disasters, wars and other assorted world-wracking problems
that will before long turn this present, relatively peaceful and benign world upside down as the globe hurtles inexorably towards its long-awaited and long-prophesied rendezvous with its eternal destiny?

Yes, what will come to pass then, when 'every principle of the [centuries old and once well-respected American] Constitution is revoked', a long-prophesied era wherein 'in a threefold union with modern spiritualism [i.e Revelation's dragon], American Protestantism [the false prophet] will
stretch its hands across the abyss to grasp the hands of the papacy [the sea-beast power]...

...a time when 'every principle of religious liberty upon which [the] nation [of America] was established will be [repudiated]...

Yes, and all in the name of 'caring about [the future of] the planet', of 'preventing global catastrophe'.

Beware what you wish for, folks, for it may one day be granted...

...but what will you do then, when all the elements are upended and in turmoil, and all that matters is escaping the impending judgment of the Rejected One Whose every overture of grace and mercy - in the person of His own delegated servants - has been spurned and spat upon...

...until He arouses to take His peoples' part and return the reprisals of their vengeful foes upon their own heads...in His long-awaited and much feared 'Day of wrath'...after which He - ultimately, a full millennia on - rise[s] up...[and is] angry...that He may do His work, His strange [awesome] work, and bring to pass His act, His strange [unusual] act...

Modern Gerrymandering - Talk About Seeking to Stack the Deck in one's own Favour! (Vis-a-vis the NZ Greens' Proposals to not only Lower the Voting-Age to Allow Crims to Vote, but 16-Year-Olds (I mean - 'Youngs')

Unprecedented Judicial Judgment Against British Government('s Proroguing of Parliament) - Imminent Impeachment Proceedings Against Trump Administration...and all the rest, especially throughout the Middle East (Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia), let alone the United Nations Climate Change Conference and Greta Thunberg's Riveting Address): We're living in Interesting Times, Folks...and, Quite Seriously, That's Just 'the Beginning of Troubles', Things're Only Starting to Warm Up...Bigtime!

And When You See the Abomination of [Which Causes] Desolation Standing in the Holy Place/Where it Ought Not, Let the Reader Understand/Whoever Reads, Let him Understand...[and act forthwith]: Abortion et al Double-Standards: The Right - NOT - to be a Conscientious Objector in 'enlightened' post-modern society...

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

Monday, September 23rd eve:
(Unapologetically written in a rather higgledy-piggledy, back-to-front order; as is my invariable wont.) In unapologetic defence of a nonconformist doctor from maverick Cork, Ireland. In regards to how the 'rights' of a vocal minority are effectively trampling upon those of the person with genuine conscientious scruples - especially those serving in the healthcare profession.

Eight months and three (i.e. 243) days on...from when I penned the following (on January 20th), after a BBC Radio interview between (then) 'O.S.' host/compere *'Lula' (no, Nuala, apparently) McGovern and a certain Irish doctor ("Brandon'), from the little ole town of Cork...

...my incentive to finally get it into blogsville simply being that I spent the better part of Thursday evening last making my own personal individual submission to the New Zealand Government's Select Committee on the proposed, and already post-first reading-stage, Government-sponsored abortion bill to - among numerous other things/objects - take this morally contentious conundrum out of the Crimes Act...

Yes, we're - well and truly, long since - living in the era of the ethical double-standard, the time when it's considered utterly intolerable to be a part of the so-called, supposedly 'pale, stale, male' set...and yet those who thus preach so fervently and incessantly, long and loud...for 'tolerance' and against the allegedly super-'intolerant'...rarely if ever extend the same level of tolerance to those whose views they are so patently intolerant of...

Yes, when(ever) the **'omniscient', 'omnipotent', 'omnipresent' state stands where it ought not (i.e. in the secret place of the human conscience), there's only one word for it, one thing to say: beware!

*The name, however, which I always hear whenever I 'hear' her name mentioned thereupon; though these days it sounds like she's moved to and is the new host of the BBC's 'Sportsworld' instead...

**Hey, that sounds eerily reminiscent of  a certain Eric Blair - infinitely better known as George Orwell, the author of two epochal tomes of the 20th Century, 1984 and Animal Farm.

To Be Continued...again (but shuteye beckons!)

Tuesday, September 24th:

*As/After the Irish Parliament *recently enacted enabling legislation following the overwhelming victory for the 'Yes' campaign (supporting the legalization of abortion generally) in Ireland's earlier (and *also very recent) referendum on the subject/matter only a little earlier last year...

...the matter of the GP (general practitioner) or physician/doctor at the very coalface of the issue has been brought into more stark relief...i.e. the necessity for a(ny) woman seeking an abortion **going forward is of course/naturally enough, as in any number of Western jurisdictions (including New Zealand), dependent upon her getting approval/'sign-off' by said doctor/s...

*Again, written as this was way back in January this year.

**Much as I detest, absolutely loathe this much-vaunted 'modernism', it does seem useful here...

To Be Continued...

While the Oriental Octopus Extends Its Tentacles Ever Wider and More Insidiously...The Much-Maligned 'Colonialist' British Empire Looks Ever More Benign and Positively Beneficent

Following a rather harrowing full hour's worth of footage and accompanying on-the-ground commentary on TV1's 'Sunday' 'current affairs'/human interest/tabloid show 10 days ago...upon the ongoing and ever more ratcheted-up protests and police response in the grand little city-state of Hong Kong, the following are some long-gestated thoughts of mine prior to this in-depth show and scribbled furiously while and after watching it...

Though a backer of the *essential object/s of the ***Hong Kong people, I've grown increasingly concerned - if not positively worried and anxious - about the inevitable and seemingly imminent outcome of this entire sorry saga...

As increasingly aggro, even violent, protestors take it to the authorities there, China is meanwhile edging closer and closer, preparing for imminent invasion to effectively quell said agitation once and for all - or so it would appear to outsiders televiewing their buildup close to the Chinese border.

From my own close and hopefully duly careful 'observations', it appears that the preeminently highly principled protestors are pushing their luck a bit far with the Chinese authorities, and it is only a matter of time till said powers that be 'double down' and crack down, relentlessly punishing all opposition to their iron-clad rule. And - for what it's worth, possibly not all that much, admittedly - it seems to me that the local Beijing-appointed leadership, aka Governor Carrie Lam, has bent over backwards and compromised to the nth degree, beyond the path of duty even, to accommodate the just concerns of Hong Kongers.

Yes, the Beijing-appointed rulers have compromised, capitulated - and majorly, of late - but it's just never enough...nothing will seem to assuage or placate the protestors...many of whom - however small in actual number - seem to have adopted a wrecking ball mentality of 'smash and destroy' and cause mayhem and destruction...

But protest leaders such as the re-imprisoned Jeremy Wong (I believe) would counter, and with good reason I'll concede, that it is all a farce, a monumental exercise in international public relations spin...a colossal attempt to pull the wool over the gaze of the onlooking global community.

Nonetheless, whichever way one cuts it, folk in that once deeply-esteemed 'land' are evidently living on increasingly borrowed time...

To Be Continued...: So what of Hong Kong's colonialist masters, i.e. the Brits...?
Hold onto your seats, folks, my 'verdict' on that much-maligned 'experiment' in 'nationcraft' may well surprise, even astound you, but I reckon it's looking more and more accurate each and every day...

Postscript:

Meanwhile the Devious Dragon is insidiously extending its ever more far-reaching tentacles further and further afield...especially into its own 'backyard', the various territories - ****large and small - of Oceania's idyllic Pacific Islands...

And thus and so BBC's World Radio yesterday morning reported that the Solomon Islands have decided to forego their previous Taiwanese aid in deference and lieu to Mainland China, i.e. the Peoples' Republic thereof...

...and though the news item then referred to a half dozen or so other, generally even tinier, Taiwanese-supported isles - possibly better termed islets - the basic upshot or 'download' thereof was simply this: though these little jurisdictions might well continue for the present to keep relying upon Taiwan's aid, it's probably just a matter of time...until Beijing eventually displaces/replaces them.

*The basic goals of the movement as stated by its **'leaders' are essentially threefold: complete and utter scrapping/revocation/abolition of the deportation to China bill; freedom of conscience and expression; and an independent civil service/judiciary. Really just 'stuff' readily taken for granted throughout the West, of which Hong Kong was indeed a small but significant part till that fateful day in 1997 when Great Britain began the long process of ceding back control to China.

**But yes, it is, as has oft been stated - as in Orwell's classic 1984 - a 'leaderless' movement...

***For surely a 1.7 million-member march in a population of just 7.5 million-odd - 25% plus! - well represents Hong Kong, though of course it no longer retains that long-cherished - and well-deserved - nation-state status.

****By which I certainly do include the venerable nations of Australasia, i.e. Aotearoa-New Zealand and its 'West Island' *****'cousin', the ******land of Oz...

*****Though even that familial monicker is increasingly suspect, as the Aussies continue their nasty and self-serving, even immoral (if not also essentially illegal) anti-kiwi approach in so many areas of their national life...

******Interestingly only yesterday I heard (c/o Mike Hosking's Newstalk ZB Morning Show) about the (Chinese) Government politician Gladys Liu, who has been facing much political heat of late vis-a-vis her own links to Chinese Government organizations both prior to and since becoming an Australian M.P. ...However, and despite the well-sustained (Opposition Labor Party) calls upon her to "Please explain" the apparently well-established reality of her (multi-faceted) connection to Chinese Communist Party Central Headquarters and its *******'international outreach', she retains political office for now.

Though the clear inference of these allegations - as indeed might well be the case concerning those thus far only tentatively proposed vis-a-vis two Chinese-originating New Zealand members of Parliament, i.e. Labour's Raymond Huo and National's Jian Yang - seems to suggest a fairly high likelihood of their truth, yet with Liu having not only come from Hong Kong but apparently having recently spoken out in support of the demonstrators and/or in opposition to the police crackdown thereupon, for the time being she appears to have placated growing political (and public) concern.

Though ********Scomo's attack on her 'attackers' as effectively 'channelling' the old bogeyman of the 'red peril' here is hardly worthy of comment, especially as the Australian Labor Party's longstanding Chinese M.P. Pansy Wong is in the vanguard of this allegedly xenophobic clarion call for accountability.

*******My euphemism for China's covert attempts especially here in God's Own and Oz to insinuate itself into our national, political affairs...via members of Parliament (in NZ anyhow, on both sides of the aisle) whose essential, unchanging, even undying allegiance is allegedly to the People's Republic.

********The acronym and popularly-known nickname for Aussie Prime Minister Scott Morrison, just as 'berda' was Yours Truly's own varsity 'identikit'. 

Partisan Political Paratrooper vis-a-vis Subtle, Serious Statesman: Though Championing a Similar Anti-Brexit Perspective, the Contrast Between Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn Couldn't be More Gaping

The Brexit Saga Enters Its 'Final' and Potentially Most Critical, Dangerous Phase: Part One:

While newbie British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cops flak from all directions for pulling out all the stops to leave the European Union by Halloween, come what *may - or others of her 'ilk' - may well think, as an exercise in political comparison, it's an interesting spectacle to behold the stark contrast between a political partisan of the first order, aka U K Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Irish Premier/Prime Minister Leo Varadkar - who arguably has as much 'skin in the game' (albeit indirect) as does Corbyn and his party.

Admittedly as a nation's leader Varadkar - as all such political figures arguably are - is only too aware that diplomacy is 'the name of the game' in terms of seeking the best deal he can coax out of his British counterpart, Boris Johnson - **while the latter is the one he has to deal with; and so he can afford to be patient and longsuffering when dealing with someone whom many - though not Yours Truly - ***seem to regard as a refractory, ornery and increasingly untrustworthy, even *****despotic character.

But not only yesterday/today with the present U K Prime Minister, whilst Theresa May graced that exalted office he ever and only - or at least insofar as the public record reveals, anyhow - seemed to try his level best - unlike some EU folk, that's for sure - to be as conciliatory as possible in trying to find some feasible solution to (the actual, on-the-ground outworking of) the ongoing Brexit dilemma.

And upon one such occasion - as with Jeremy Corbyn (as outlined below, in my copious footnotes) - I fully intended to commend his sterling character thereabouts...for making just the right noises (but doing so in a wholly transparent, self-effacing and productive manner, with no shades whatsoever of sordid, petty, partisan political game-playing). So sharply in contrast with (the newfangled) Mr Corbyn, as you'll see in detail if you peruse the footnotes following.

But suffice for now - for those with a lesser attention span - to state on the record that my relative gripe with the Labour leader is (and has been for some considerable time now) his patent unwillingness to, quite simply, 'play the statesman'...thus 'besting', if you will, 'Messrs' Cameron and Johnson and 'Madame' May...because he rose above this petty partisan fray and took the moral high ground, in so doing winning the hearts of his fellow Brits (Scots, Northern Irish, Welsh and English).

But Corbyn has evidently long since abandoned any genuine attempt to do so - his 'negotiations' with Ms May coming over as a mere face-saving, do-as-little-as-possible-and-yet-look-as-though-you're doing-something-substantial-and-meaningful gesture for praise-eliciting media consumption. And as for his incessant attempts of recent days, weeks and months to scupper anything but a very narrowly-focussed Brexit (pretty much in name only), it's a sad reflection upon his apparent inability to distance himself from his ******native political instincts and 'seize the day' and opportunity - to be the man for the moment, as was ever his historic chance and even destiny (had he so chosen).

In so doing he could and would have kept faithful to his own longstanding Eurosceptic inclinations and yet rallied support of his fellow Brits to the great cause he could have truly championed as his own as well, had he so, and really, wished...-but as the saying goes...

I came to a fork in the road, and found two diverging tracks, and didn't take the road less travelled - and that has made all the difference...

*Just couldn't resist the purely intended pun...

**And who knows how long that will be, what with the innumerable obstacles and ongoing challenges - including of late serious legal ones - that have increasingly beleaguered and bedevilled Johnson as October 31st draws nigh.

***Yes, as ever I'm playing the devil's advocate, or perhaps more accurately I ever seek to portray the arguments or viewpoints of my ideological 'opponents' in their correct light; misrepresenting one's  political 'enemies' being an increasingly evident and unpleasant characteristic of the modern Western 'culture wars' and the like - and certainly neither an endearing quality nor really all that helpful in seeking to have and to hold a well-informed debate upon any serious matter.

Then you may well question as to why I portray Jeremy Corbyn in such highly pejorative terms - especially as stated in my blogpost title? For this reason: although it's unrealistic for me to imagine or assume that anyone reading this latest post has read any let alone many far less all of the literal abundance of blogposts I've posted upon the topic of Brexit ever since - indeed well before - the fateful day of June 23rd, 2016, for equally obvious reasons it's likewise unrealistic for readers thereof to expect me to restate much less re-explain my own views vis-a-vis each of the various 'major players' involved each and every time I post an additional commentary upon the subject.

And so, believe me or otherwise, the very reason I use such strong, unflattering language in regards to the ****reasonably long-serving Labour Party leader is my deep disappointment in the man; from early on being over the moon with the completely unexpected choice of him as leader and scribbling a fairly glowing pre-blogpost thereabouts, which I somehow failed to post at the time, and, to my great frustration, I've never managed to thus far re-locate...

...to the settled conviction I've sustained over recent years - especially post-referendum - that he's really not a whole lot different from ye average politico (in Western lands, anyhow); talking a real good talk - 'saying all the right things' - whilst seeking to follow a  narrow, ideologically-circumscribed and all too predictable, politically partisan agenda. Never rising to the honourable status of statesmanlike much less attaining to a position as a real statesman. Unlike, incidentally, Hilary Benn, the grandson (I believe) of that true and ever honourable leader - in all but name - of the British Left, Tony Benn. 

****Especially and all the more so in light of his (well-known) 'pedigree' as easily the most left-of-centre - indeed left-wing - leader they've had in their modern history, the possible exception being Michael Foot in the early 1980s; with the consequent 'dissonance' within his party over whether he has the proper credentials to ever become U K Prime Minister (even were he to stand half a chance).

*****Such commonly-bandied about claims as that Johnson has somehow - in 'proroguing' Parliament - conducted some kind of a coup (d'etat) are patently laughable, were they not only so serious but also *******downright hypocritical.

******That is, his instinctual, politically partisan, tory-bashing attitude - not his longstanding Eurosceptic stance (which in my view was quite commendable, and had been his consistent stand).

*******Especially so coming from the likes of nineteen-nineties' Conservative Prime Minister John Major, who evidently used precisely this very political mechanism himself. For noble and uplifting purposes? Not on your life, but for el typical partisan political ends, apparently.

Friday the 13th: Part Two: The Broader Picture and Seismic Realignment of British Political Life in the age and wake of the historic Brexit referendum result

So where do we - or rather the Brits (English, Welsh, Scots, Northern Irish) - stand now (at this crucial, none-more-critical phase) as October 31st looms ever larger on the horizon?

Yes, the spectacle is one of the United Kingdom's Prime Minister being stymied - frustrated, thwarted, contradicted and opposed - at every turn as he seeks any and every which way to effect the very thing for which he - *perfectly understandably - feels and believes he (and his colleagues) have been mandated by his and their British compatriots with putting into effect...

So while the watching, wondering world witnesses the very best wishes and (in my view) honourable intentions of hardline brexiters (I happen to agree with) go askew and indeed literally fall apart left, right and especially centre, as the British P. M. sees some of his closest and/or most senior cabinet colleagues either bail out in disgust or be effectively shuffled out (upon his orders) then effectively cross the floor/resign en masse - deserting in droves - as they balk and hesitate and turn back at the dire prospect of Boris driving the islands over the cliff as he expedites the scenario of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union come October 31st - no ifs, buts or maybes considered... 

...with no seeming way for that 'hard option' not to **hit the nation and Britons hard and mercilessly ...as the political class and commentariot - even the supposed 'old fogies' of the House of Lords - round upon Boris Johnson to deny him both a no-deal brexit as well as his 'do or die'/'die in a ditch' declaration of allowing - not - yet another extension to the never-ending European Union talks...

...what do we see when we look at her Majesty's ***loyal opposition? A good question indeed. 

What with former prime ministers of both major parties - i.e. the Conservatives' John Major and Labour's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - not only roundly, if not necessarily soundly, condemning Johnson's take-no-prisoners approach/(preparation for a) no deal scenario/ultimatum...and seeking, by whatever means they can, to do all in their power to stop him in his tracks from carrying out his determined purpose...

...meanwhile Labour - ****unlike the good ole *****Liberal Democrats - has trotted out a really principled and statesmanlike stance upon the same...

...which is what, precisely? Again, a really apt question...and so perhaps it's little wonder that while 'Bojo' appears increasingly abandoned by one and all and pretty well left to self-destruct...an electoral time-bomb which he himself has helped to detonate is going off in Labour's traditional heartland: Yorkshire evidently being a prime example.

In fact, it's apparent that in such longstanding bastions of 'Labourism', their traditional, most staunch and undying supporters are deserting them...

...not in mere dozens or even droves, but the trickle is rapidly crescendoing into a veritable stampede...as the 'people at the bottom' of the socio-economic heap look towards 'their' leaders - then over at Boris Johnson - then back at Corbyn & Co - then back at the P.M., and, without further ado, simply conclude: whereas Jeremy et al are promising anything and everything to everyone and anyone - and meanwhile doing whatever is in their own partisan political interests (to stymie not only BJ et al but moreover the express will of UK citizens in a certain referendum almost 3 years and 3 months ago)...

...the United Kingdom's new Prime Minister, however at times blundering and blustering, blubbering and blabbering, bluffing and/or 'bull.....ing..., is, nevertheless - and notwithstanding all the aforementioned - the real thing, the real deal, no man's debtor nor mere puppet-on-a-string...not only of his party's machine but of those 'mysterious men in dark corridors' in Brussels...

and I'd argue, even wager, that to most Britons - Welsh and English, anyhow, if not Scots and Irish - that matters a heckuva lot more than following a long-predetermined politically correct songsheet...

...and one, moreover, which - far from merely opposing the limited entry into the U K of certain ethnicities and nationalities who we are given to suppose really rile up half the people in the United Kingdom - many thoughtful souls believe holds a truly secretive agenda...whose specific program will only become completely clear and totally transparent in time to come...

...*********when the long-prophesied United States of Europe come into effective being...

*Or as I tongue-in-cheek expressed the matter when emailing RNZ National's First Up programme this morning after they reported on the newest phase in court rulings thereabouts...

Hey, what a demagogue, even unregenerate fascist that dude is - he's actually trying to effect the democratically-mandated will of the people!

...and a little later...

To put it in everyday lingo, Boris has the nerve to be doing the very thing that the people voted (elected him) for - the sheer cheek of the spectacle!

**Indeed, the latest 'yellow paper' issued today puts things in the direst terms...

***Certainly to themselves and their own partisan political interests.

****My use of that word 'unlike', as you'll gather here (and above) is of course entirely ironic: for - as with UKIP - the Liberal Democrats (and the Scottish National Party, anyway) all happen to be maintaining a principled - if not necessarily statesmanlike (in the latter two cases) - stance vis-a-vis Brexit; whether one tends to agree or disagree with the particular stance they happen to have adopted...

*****Whatever I happen to think of their anti-Brexit, pro-Bremain stance... Indeed, over the years and decades of closely following British politics they're the main party I've ever and always identified most closely with, this being, oddly enough, the one - major or otherwise - matter I've ever happened to disagree with them upon...

...whereas the selfsame matter of Europe was - coincidentally enough - the one, and quite possibly only, substantive subject upon which I - and incidentally, such longstanding luminaries of the British Left of yesteryear as Tony Benn and Bryan Gould - happened to agree with ******that old 'wicked witch of the West', Margaret Thatcher...

******As I can hear Smeagol-Gollum putting things (in an attempt to extricate himself from a hole he's dug himself into): "No, there's no bad feelings...none at all!" (i.e. towards long-serving and pivotal, however controversial Prime Minister Thatcher, in my so describing her).

I suppose it simply puts in a nutshell my own childish (though then in my *******late teens through mid-twenties) image of her while she ********'reigned'; and hence, when she died, the Wizard of Oz's wicked witches came instantly to mind - and moreover that song 'The Wicked Witch is dead'...much as Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind' did when Lady Diana Spencer died - and before I heard anyone publicly floating either of those memorable songs...as a means of commemoration.

*******Would Frodo, Samwise Gamgee et al have deemed that 'tweens'?

********'Reigned' seems an appropriate description/depiction of the 11-year tenure of the woman who - next to the three long-serving British queens - Elizabeth the First, Victoria and Elizabeth the Second - has without doubt been the major female figure bestriding (both recent and past) British history since it became a nation centuries, even millennia ago...

*********Believe in this long-held **********'conspiracy theory' or not, however for your interest it's an entity about which the name of long-serving U K P M Tony Blair has often - since his resignation in 2007/2008 - been closely associated/**********bandied about...so, indeed, the ***********"demon-eyed" 'New Labour' convert to Roman Catholicism might well yet have a role to play in last days events...though he might have to relocate to Ireland, say (in order of course to be eligible for election to the EU Parliament) in order to achieve it...

...though last I 'heard' (or understood on good biblical authority anyhow) there's another (far more) well-respected, highly influential individual presently bestriding the global stage in line for that particular post, and somehow I suspect he'll ultimately be a shoo-in...

...especially as final events move into virtual overdrive...and the world fervently, frantically seeks, even demands, a man of peace to bring some sort of solace to this war-wracked and weary world.

**********Actually, it's not a mere 'conspiracy theory' - which do indeed appear a veritable 'dime a dozen' these days - but a long, millennia-foretold scenario destined to ultimately pan out in the very final and most problematic moments of human history...as well-referenced in the Apocalypse, i.e. the biblical book of Revelation, chapter 17 especially...and note particularly verses 7 through 18; and most graphically in verses 12-14, 16-17.

*********(*)Just as the names of longtime leftwing kiwi politicians Jim Anderton and Helen Clark were themselves oftentimes discussed in certain circles as being potential future leaders of a one-world government...and certainly Ms Clark - New Zealand's long-serving and indeed three-term Prime Minister - eventually had a fair go at achieving something broadly approximating such, it could hardly be denied...

***********As one-time Labour Party M.P., former actress Glenda Jackson, then described him.

Damned if he DOES, Damned if he DOESN'T...-but, 'jiminy cricket', President Trump: This time you've made a DAMN GOOD DECISION!

Yes - prior to 'events' leading to this declaration of positive acclamation - the U S President was once again undergoing the usual round of unmitigated condemnation...this time for 'recanting' (fairly last-minute, to be sure) upon the proposed Camp David summit with Afghani Taleban leaders...all 'taking place' in the immediate lead-up to the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 '9/11' attacks on the Twin Towers et al...

Now, believe me or otherwise - the careful consideration and balanced evaluation of the overall tenor of my various and sundry blogposts since 2015 or so, however, would prove the truth of my contention - I'm far from being a fan of Donald J Trump per se (far less as American President!)...

...but when the commentariat just has to have a go at him 'come rain or shine', hell or high water - simply for the sake of having a go at him - I do think it's a bit rich (or rather, cheap) and petty, and all the rest...

In refreshing contrast, you've gotta hand it to Hong Kongers - overall, and especially the little band of 'Old Glory'-waving folk on the news the other night appealing to (the better nature of) America (and the Trump Administration) to intervene on their behalf: they certainly cherish their (divinely-bequeathed) - and 'colonially'-bestowed! - freedoms, much as Revelation 12:10 eulogizes all those ultimate overcomers...

...who did not love their lives to the death...

So what is today's blogpost about? Simply this: Congratulations...and celebrations, "Mr President": for your good - great - move to dump that foreign policy hawk/war-monger, John Bolton...

- a truly excellent move, "Mr President"; well done!

And yet...-and incidentally, shortly after declaring the sequence of events to accompany the return of Jesus Christ to this planet, whereupon 'the trump(sic) of God'  will be sounded loud and clear...

the 'Apostle to the Gentiles' Paul then records, also under divine inspiration, the following snapshot of our times, again eerily up-to-date, many might well argue:

...when they shall say, Peace and safety...

...what happens then?

...then sudden destruction cometh upon them...and they shall not escape...

Another Rotten Man Kicks the Bucket/Bites the Dust: Robert Mugabe - Rest in Peace while you may...

To Be Continued Tomorrow (following sufficient shuteye)...

Hey, I'd better keep my word...(though shuteye beckons, and two other larger than life issues beckon)

(Continuation/completion of title): ...because if I were you, I'd be shakin' in me boots (in my grave), in trepidation at the rapidly-approaching Judgment Day/*'Day of the Lord'...

...wherein **judgment without mercy will be to [come to/visit] those who have shown no mercy...

Though it has long/ever been considered impolite, even downright rude and uncouth to 'speak ill of the dead', I'll make another exception here - as with (President) Bush ***Senior awhile ago - for one-time Rhodesian civil war leader Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ****second black president.

*As it is referred to oftentimes throughout the Older Testament of the Holy Bible.

** Ibid (no particular version): James 2:13a.

***Let alone (President) Bush Junior...if and when his own death transpires prior to the Second Coming... 

****Evidently Abel Muzorewa (a name I can vividly recall, for some reason - maybe its uniqueness?) as my brother uncovered for me a little while back, and that despite my own insistence that Mugabe had himself taken over immediately following his victory in Zimbabwe's civil war...

Again, to be continued asap...

No, this 'war hero' cum ruthless dictator cum authorizer of sectarian genocide/ethnic cleansing (before that term came into vogue) - alongside his (ideological and chronological and even 'bosom buddy') successor, current President Emerson Managuela, 'the croc(odile)' as he's *affectionately, and arguably somewhat *euphemistically known - ought to be shipped off (even in his casket, if need be) ipso pronto to the Hague - for post-mortem prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

'For high crimes and misdemeanours'/crimes against humanity. Last I heard the ICC's well versed in serving it to war criminals, among whom are, as we all well know, a rather disproportionate number of former presidents and prime ministers, and especially from the continent of Africa, sad to say. Neither man deserves any less; and arguably far more.

Ultimately sharing the well-earned fate, the eternal sentence accruing to his spiritual master - 'that old serpent...the Devil'...-about whom an interesting long-term prophecy exists, eerily appropriate to these Zimbabwean 'leaders'...

As the prophet Isaiah graphically portrays:

How the oppressor has ceased...

All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
But you are cast out of your 
grave
Like an abominable branch...
...
Like a corpse trodden 
underfoot.
You will not be joined with 
them in burial,
Because you have destroyed 
your land
And slain your people...

**(Isaiah 14:4,18-20) 

Sure, the One Above can forgive 'to the uttermost' - and moreover 'from the guttermost' - or, more aptly, accept the, however last-minute and belated, confession and contrition - if they're truly heartfelt and genuine - of any rogue or scoundrel, however wicked, brutal, ruthless and callous...***but not in order to escape the fires of hell.

And sure, the 'LORD's hand is not short(ened), that it cannot save' (to the guttermost and uttermost), 'whosoever calleth upon the name of the LORD', even in the utmost extremity of life and near-death ...however 'death-bed repentances' have unfortunately become somewhat of 'a dime a dozen', so to speak, especially in this most superficial of eras...with many so utterly steeped in impenitence and infidel hardihood by that stage of life that any so-called 'repentance' is sadly often little more than deep regret and remorse for a life poorly lived and deep-seated aversion to the terrifying prospect of an eternity in so-called hell... - or the fanciful hope of a place of physical and material comfort, rest (and preferably also recreation!)

*Of course I kid/am being facetious, though perhaps that's inappropriate in such a serious matter...

**Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

***I.e. not with that as one's underlying motive/motivation. And note well, although the Lake of Fire is indeed the final, ultimate end of ****those who neither know God nor obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, *****it will not burn on forever and ever (i.e. eternally)...but rather with everlasting results...

****The Holy Bible: 2 Thessalonians 1:8.

*****As is evident from a thoughtful, careful - and, most importantly, prayerful - consideration of (a literal super-abundance of) scriptures from both Older and Newer Testaments, the doctrines of purgatory, an eternally-burning hell etcetera being among the seemingly innumerable mass of heresies brought in throughout the length and breadth of the wearyingly long Dark Ages, when the ******long-foretold religio-political Antichrist power reigned supreme and unfettered...

******An 'entity' about which there was no difference of opinion among all the non-established, nonconformist, 'dissenting', 'protest-ant'  churches - for literally centuries, even millennia...

Postscript:

For an unusually insightful and balanced evaluation of the life and times - and moreover, long, around 40-year 'reign' of Zimbabwe's self-styled 'monarch' (in all but name), it's hard to ignore the admittedly brief interview Monday morning (September 9th) on RNZ National (around 8.15 a.m.); with Eddie Cross, current M.P. I believe and evidently one of the founders of Zimbabwe's MDC - Movement for Democratic Change.

Post-Postscript (As of September 12th):

Apparently, as Mugabe's body was today airlifted back (from Singapore, evidently) to Zimbabwe for a memorial service and burial - hey, perhaps he'll be cremated and his ashes used for weed-killer...

Zimbabwean President Managuela, upon his arrival home, declared: '"Let there be unity [from hereon in]." Almost unconsciously those 'immortal' words of King Theoden, in answer to Saruman's belated and somewhat pathetic appeal to return to his former loyalty [to Saruman's kingdom] as Grima Wormtongue stands menacingly behind the wizard upon the top of Orthanc - in Peter Jackson et al's cinematic remake of J R R Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings trilogy - sprang to my remembrance this morning (transposing the word 'peace' for 'unity', 'Matabeleland' for 'the Hornburg' etcetera):

Yes, there will be unity [and peace]...there will be unity [and peace]...

There will be unity [and peace]...

when you and your [kith and kin] are made to answer for the deaths of the [people of Matabeleland]...and your bodies join theirs in the [drink]...

Yes, then there will be unity [and peace]!

At Long Last, Some Signs of Tentative Reconciliation and Peace - at least somewhat of a ceasefire - Between Russia and the Ukraine...

And I ask, even beseech my numerous Ukrainian and Russian viewers to forgive me for - however inadvertently - so long ignoring their great respective nations, with their own complex geopolitical situations...

Sure, Environment Minister David Parker Might Have Stuck his Political Neck Out and Ruffled a Few Feathers...

...but it's not a bad thing to be in a minority (even of one) when it comes to doing the right thing...

...as he most definitely has vis-a-vis the long-running sore of the shocking state of our (that is, Aotearoa-New Zealand's) freshwater lakes, which, 'as we all know', were indeed once fit for swimming in...

Not cowardly resiling from appearing upon yesterday avo's Newstalk ZB 'Country Show', and fronting up - or so I gather - anywhere and everywhere where his presence was requested and desired on the Government's river cleanup proposals...

Minister Parker has acquitted himself admirably, even managing to hold his own, in an eminently forthright, considered and thoughtful fashion, not only upon said weekday farming programme but elsewhere, revealing that rarest of ministerial qualities, being willing and prepared to do the right thing come torrent of abuse and all the rest...

...calmly and in a dignified, reasonable manner listening to vehement, vociferous, and arguably eminently unreasonable, even unreasoning opponents and answering them without any bs and in a way which evidenced he had a full grasp of all the complexities - in all their variegated manifestations - surrounding the issue...

Yes, the fella's *somewhat of an ignoramus when it comes to the ongoing and proposed 'upping' of the present widespread (yet still somewhat limited) mass medication of our community water supplies throughout the length and breadth of this fair land - and **his own nephew might well be an ape (he himself being a 'monkey's uncle') - but as arguably the brightest and most clear-thinking, incisive - and well-respected, even in mainstream Opposition circles - member of Jacinda Ardern's cabinet, he certainly leaves many other politicians (whether in or out of government) in the dust...

...when it comes to his eminent integrity, sensibleness, reasonableness and level-headedness and 'unrufflability', that's for sure...

*/** From, respectively, the Minister's speech around a year or so/two ago following upon the Government's proposed water supplies regulations (following Havelock North), though in this case dealing with taking the decision about fluoridation of local water supplies out of the hands of local councils and reassigning them to local and regional health authorities/boards - making it harder for folk like Yours Truly, for instance, to oppose and prevent said mass medication of the life-sustaining substance with a highly toxic chemical long banned throughout pretty well the length and breadth of Europe.

Minister Parker made a rather snide, sneering reference to those he clearly considered rather loopy for daring to oppose something which dental (and even many medical authorities) either champion or see little harm in; in selfsame speech - or on another occasion, he referenced his own unquestioning belief in the mantra of our age, Darwin's ***theory of evolution, about which I will one day write at length, in terms of how those good folk generally championing said theory of the 'survival of the fittest' tend to hold an inherently contradictory notion of how societies themselves ought to work, vis-a-vis the unfairness of an economic system which allows the top canine to win and just lets others scoop up any leftover crumbs...

***About which 'theory' my own seventh-form biology teacher, Mr Reid, had the eminent honesty to say that it was indeed only a theory, never having been proven - which of course it hasn't been...

Parker's quip of course related to his - 'our' - own supposed pre-human ancestry...

Angela Merkel et al Do have a Point: vis-a-vis those with Religious and/or - oftentimes even more 'fundamentalist' - health/dietary Sensibilities increasingly throwing their (inconsiderable) weight around...

Though a relatively minor footnote hidden away within BBC World News 'archives', Chancellor Merkel recently (a couple weeks ago) was insistent that minorities, however fervent vis-a-vis the value of such religious values as halal meat etc...

...should have no right to call for the end of un-halal etc practices in nations - such as her own beloved Germany - where such has ever been the long-established practice...

..with many, anyhow.

And as for the vegan who raised merry hell over in Aussie the other day when the ('carniverous') barbecue fumes happened to waft (over the fence and into her property) in her particular direction?

Hey, get over it and get a life! -You're giving the rest of us a really bad name, and then some...

The essential, equally long-established moral (of the story)?

Hey folks, *when in Rome (or Aotearoa-New Zealand, Germany etcetera), do as the Romans (or kiwis/Germans etc) do...

*A topic I've often dealt with (either directly in a blogpost a few years back, or indirectly c/o such issues of our times as say Brexit and the U.S.-Mexican border wall).

Heeding the Warnings...and thus avoiding needless tragedy: the Bahamas...an island state suffering, but in proportion to their wise planning and forethought

...which is hardly to downplay or diminish the tragic deaths of 20-odd folk from Cyclone Dorian's path of destruction throughout their tiny island territory...

...but simply to commend their unusual forethought (at least as reported on Shine TV's '700 Club' CNN News the other night) in the diabolical circumstances...

...something precious few others (either individually or nationally) ever even bother to do... 

And the other story alluded to (in Sunday's blogpost)? The Exoneration of Sarah Dowie, M.P., by Police Probe

"Just part of the 'hurly-burly' of politics," was evidently the 'verdict' of the aforesaid to the controversy surrounding the Invercargill Member of Parliament, who, according to the series of 'salacious' revelations spewing forth from Jami-Lee Ross, M.P., just under a year ago...

...had emailed or texted him saying she wished he would kill himself...-end of story.

Just part of the hurly-burly of politics? Really? Not on your life - that is, not if the shoe'd been well and truly on the other (i.e. a male/masculine) foot...

No, not on yer nelly!

Rather, Double-standards Incorporated...as per how politics is - and indeed such matters in general are - played (out) in modern-day Western society...

And yet some so-called 'experts' have the sheer naivete to publicly ponder (and frankly, pontificate) on how and why respect for and trust in the justice system have well-nigh evaporated right throughout the West?

The Belated Blogpost I'd (very recently) Meant to Post, But Time has Evidently Eluded me - though hopefully not Long-Delayed Justice - for 'an innocent man'...

It's extremely rare events overtake me in such a fashion as to make almost completely obsolete the essential point/gist of what I'd intended to post, however sadly this is one of those rare instances...

So without further ado, all credit - and profuse plaudits - to the lawyer Nigel Hampton QC, who had the moral gumption, the guts and the grist - to make a difference...while Peter Ellis still remained...and to dedicated Dunedin author Lynley Hood, for taking the time and trouble to do the painstaking research required...to prove his innocence, and indeed that a patent mistrial had been conducted...

...as well as politicians (and 'countless' others) such as Don Brash...who've long championed the cause of this man who just so happened, it would appear, to have been 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'...

So what had I meant to contribute to the discussion/debate? Simply the following...

Do the right thing, Muldoon-style - yes, a petty tyrant of a leader at times, who, however, and despite his numerous and well-traversed and canvassed faults, failings and other idiosyncratic perversities...

...nevertheless ultimately did the right thing by Arthur Allan Thomas...and extended the royal prerogative of mercy and pardoned him...

...and pardon Peter Ellis...

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

Yet his effective ministerial successor (in this regard), the present Auckland mayoral aspirant, former Labour Party leader and one-time Justice Minister - as well as leading 'Rogernome' in decades previous, Phil Goff - failed to do as much...himself rejecting the findings of the Eichelmann Report which had recommended Peter Ellis be pardoned...

Much like his own - seemingly mindless, and arguably spineless - refusal to revisit the overwhelming evidence so meticulously investigated and researched, assembled and endlessly cross-checked (and ultimately published) by Joe Karam on behalf of the similarly long-imprisoned David Bain...

But the truth will ultimately 'out' as they say...if not here, in the hereafter...

And Now Let's Finally Get Onto Some Rather Problematic Domestic Matters of Gender-Inequity, But Not of the Type We're Endlessly Harangued With...

As inadvertently referred to in my previous blogpost footnotes, and especially relevant - as it so transpires - in the wake of the long-imprisoned, later released, and now dead (as of yesterday) convicted 'criminal' Peter Ellis, a cause celebre of our time (in Aotearoa-New Zealand)...

The One with the Last Word...which He'll verily unveil - to a rapt (joyful/enthusiastic and/or despairing/terrified) onlooking world (and universe)...at 'the Last Trump'

"S/he who humbles her/himself will be exalted, but s/he who exalts her/himself will be *humbled."

Schadenfreude - a great, unique German word - with no English equivalent, and perhaps none (or relatively few) in other lingua franca - and moreover with a very unique meaning indeed...

Schadenfreude - the distasteful habit of (however secretly and/or obscurely) delighting in or **gloating over another's misfortune (whether that was or is deserved/'due' or otherwise)...

...and no, in this case I'm relying upon my own memory, not on my otherwise ever trusty dictionary...

One could reasonably enough claim it's a longstanding tendency or attitude of human nature (when observing and considering the plight of those we generally don't like or who have done us wrong suffering some ***untoward calamity); or rather, an instinct if you will - however unpleasant or unsavoury - of what the Good Book refers to (especially throughout the middle of the book of Romans) as unregenerate, carnal, fleshly, unredeemed human nature.

Schadenfreude - something which said Holy Bible makes mention of from time to time, and especially within Solomon's book of wisdom, Proverbs. And, as a pleasant surprise to me, a topic even 'rating' an entire show - or was that several? - on the BBC world radio awhile back... 

"So get to the point," you're wanting to interrupt my stream of consciousness and say, "of what specifically speakest thou?"

Okay, in case you didn't 'get it' or catch on from my title - I suppose I'm so close to my subject-matter (see said title) that for me it's obvious as daylight - I'll spell out now what I'm on about...

The topic relates to the recent ****snide as - remarks (probably via *****twitter, his standard means of communication, as we all know) of a certain American President...who has happened of recent days - as indeed majorly in times (recent years) past, to deeply insult - as indeed is his wont, I'll readily grant - the ******'good' people of Puerto Rico...

Not content evidently with his (c/o his Administration's) extremely tardy and hopeless, pathetic as response to the last cyclone to ravage the island (though presently I can't recall its' name), and then claiming (without a shred of evidence) it'd *******only killed a few hundred people as opposed to well-authenticated figures of some 6,000-odd...

...just the other day he really adds insult to injury, suggesting or at least insinuating that it'd serve 'em right (if I recall aright, and admittedly I may have things marginally askew here) if this latest one hits 'em hard...

But guess what? - and yes, Yours Truly *********commented thereabouts only two blogposts back - said tropical cyclone has given Puerto Rico a wide berth...though things aren't looking so good for the Florida coast (as they weren't for the Bahamas, I believe, though there've been few reports of *******'major' death or destruction there, far as I've heard). 

So, call it supreme poetic irony that Hurricane Dorian has now changed course, and is right on course for President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club Resort in Palm Beach, Florida...-indeed, call that the understatement of our times...

So don't you tell me the One Above doesn't have a - superlative, unsurpassed - sense of humour!

So, gloat over your (political) 'enemy's' misfortune(s) all you will - and then some - but be ye warned:

with what measure ye mete out, it will [one day] be meted out to you...with what judgment ye judge, ye will be judged.

Yes, know for all that - those flippant, idle words you so carelessly and thoughtlessly uttered -
God will [yet - yes, He's got plenty of time, a whole eternity in front of Him!] bring you into judgment...

...and that judgment without [any] mercy [whatsoever] will be to the one who has shown no mercy.


Incidentally, though it couldn't be more relevant in this particular context, I've written previously on two-three-four occasions about this divine sense of humour, and indeed applied it specifically to 'the Donald'...as my own (admittedly idiosyncratic) reading of The Bible suggests is eminently feasible, even appropriate. Including one not all that long ago about the Deity indeed having the last laugh, and at a certain prominent individual's expense...

But for your benefit, and to save us both the hassle of uncovering where in my blogpostville that most recent blogpost anyway is located...I'll briefly reprise, requoting said biblical text - mind you, only in the King James Version of said scriptures:

As the Apostle Paul outlined the future trajectory of Jesus Christ's majestic re-entry to Planet Earth, he penned these words:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump...for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed...

And elsewhere, as he counsels the Thessalonian believers, awaiting that glorious rapture of the church, to **********'sorrow not, even as others which have no hope', he goes on to declare:

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout[,]with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God... 

Yes, in the not too distant, indeed in the fairly foreseeable, He'll indeed 'have the last word'. In all our lives - yes, including yours, Mr Trump...

Nuff Said.

*Although this could well be expressed as 'humiliated/put to shame'. And yes, I've expressed Jesus' words in a back-to-front fashion, for obvious reasons (i.e. the latter being my especial emphasis here); and, yes, the original (Greek/Hebrew) text doesn't provide such gender neutral references.

*Something my brother ever, invariably 'ribbed' me for doing - by what he referred to as (or implied was) a slight, subtle as smirk...whenever, as I evidently tended to do, I beat him (soundly? - I can't recall precisely, but anyway) at ye good 'ole game of chess (in our childhood)...

***Though, yes, as I immediately realized after writing that, and moreover as my oft-quoted aforementioned Chambers Concise Dictionary affirms, that goes without saying...'untoward' meaning, among other things - 'unlucky: unfavourable'...

However another meaning of untoward - 'unfitting' - does apply, and with literal spades, to the rest of my above blogpost...

****Defined by said Dictionary as 'base: mean...derogatory in an insinuating way: showing malice' -rather than its primary meaning (evidently - at least 30-some years ago) of 'sham: counterfeit... dishonest' - yes, well realizing that the first two of those other meanings have oftentimes - and with good reason - been applied numerous times to the - personal - subject of this blogpost!

*****Which one wag - if not several - have remarked (which admittedly occurred to me as well, early on in its use/misuse/abuse) that twitter is for twits. End of story. Unless - to secure myself against thus insulting a substantial proportion of my readership! - you've actually got something worthwhile to say....

******As regular readers well know, and as Jesus Himself responded when accosted by the rich young ruler, (I believe) 'there is none [truly] good but God alone'.

*******Again, as regular readers well know, this punter considers any death significant, the media's longstanding habit of number ranking such things - whether natural disasters, wartime death tolls, rampages and armed massacres by crazed (American and other) ********gunmen etcetera...being deeply disturbing/problematic to me, even if upon one level 'understandable'...though (if you see my subsequent paragraph), I seem to almost immediately contradict myself when using the word 'major'. Yes, we're all affected by the way language is used, I'll readily grant, so what can I say...?

********I suppose, to be entirely gender-neutral (as elsewhere) I ought to say 'gun(wo)men', however as we all know the number of such is so minimal as to be almost nonexistent...

...though in so saying, that's not true vis-a-vis the ongoing spate of suicide bombings around our world. And, in (such) a similar vein, I've much to say - already penned furiously (in speed and in intensity of emotion) some time back (but not all yet posted)...concerning the double-standards vis-a-vis female sexual abuse (of minors and schoolkids), and - moreover - vis-a-vis certain prominent politicos (and other 'celebrities') here in NZ and overseas, whose 'misdemeanours' are conveniently overlooked and brushed aside as essentially harmless and good fun whilst the very same oftentimes have few qualms whatsoever about getting on their exceedingly high-flying equinal animal and sticking it to the male of the species left, right and centre, and especially below the belt...

...but especially vis-a-vis a well-known instance in Godzone where many people believe an innocent man was set up by feminazi types and consequently subjected to years of wrongful imprisonment.
A matter of especial interest to Yours Truly, having had experience and training in teacher aiding, and having myself been the object of (relatively minor) 'stuff' (though not without effect, including that I've been rather reluctant to get back into a line of work where very few men - 'surprise, surprise' - will venture to set foot in recent years and decades)...

*********Thanking the good Lord therein for effectively deflecting it from Puerto Rico, and evidently redirecting it elsewhere. And guess where? - Yes sirree, right towards Trump's Floridian playground!

**********No, I don't believe this particular passage is suggesting grieving is somehow wrong or misplaced - much less sinful - and there's good biblical reasons for saying this, but that's for another time...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hooray! Hallelujah!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey, you be the judge...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epilog: Due acknowledgements here to:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

**Long may that continue...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****Edwards! (two days on)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postscript (and Encouragement to read my footnotes below):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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