(You're Just a) "Little Fella": 'Short People Got No Reason...Got No Reason...to Live...Short People are Just the Same as You or I': Again, take your choice, but for me, myself and I, alongside musical legend Paul Simon and the Global Midgets Society Incorporated, I'd Prefer to Defer to the Latter (Notion)...You see, I'm Likewise Somewhat Height (not to mention Physique!) 'Challenged'

And Though the Jury Still Seems Out - Global Media Hype Notwithstanding - It Would Appear the Coronavirus ('Covid 19') Could Well Be the Worst 'Pestilence' in Living Memory; or, Alternatively, A Far Tamer Version of the Good-Ole-Fashioned 'Flu': Take Your Pick, The Arguments are Pretty Strong Either Way

But for ye mainstream (Western, anyhow) media to now be getting so dumbstruck about people (such as here in Auckland, New Zealand) becoming duly beside themselves and 'hunkering down' as it were by stockpiling bulk supplies from local supermarkets of recent days...

...methinks, anyway, is just a tad (or two) rich...

Duh, what d'ya reckon has caused such an extreme alarmist response/reaction?

Though Petulantly Blaming President Trump for All the World's Ills Seems to Know No Bounds...

-as today's (New Zealand) edition of 'global award-winning', New York-based (and New Zealand broadcast) radio show "Democracy Now' *has overreached itself in doing...

*Or at least an intriguing university professor/lecturer **Sonia **Sligh interviewed by host Amy Goodman on Friday, February 28th (NZ time) in my opinion has, in somehow managing to link the U S President in with other xenophobic, conspiratorial and/or simply pig-ignorant responses to the present Coronavirus. Although admittedly her central contention has merit; that is, her thesis that it is all too easy to blame such diseases on the likes of 'foreigners' like the Chinese by framing them as 'foreign invaders' (of our supposedly 'healthful' Western lands), when doing thus and so is a way of effectively "obscuring our own (human) role in [effectively] developing [such maladies] [in the first place] [by] providing them a fertile breeding ground",

arguing this upon the basis of continual human encroachment upon global ecosystems (as a part and parcel of ongoing climate change)...

...and in particular the effective eradication of numerous habitats for bats, which happen to be the most common species of mammal (by a longshot)...

Interestingly, as per a talkback caller upon either Marcus Lush' Newstalk ZB Show the other evening or that of Miles .......... overnight, the bat being one (indeed the very last specified) of the 'unclean animals' cited in Deuteronomy 14:18 amidst the rather extensive lists of such verboten animals (livestock, mammals, birds, fish, rodents et al) in that Older Testament book (14:3-20) and that of Leviticus (11:1-30/31(-)41-43(-)46/47, especially in this case verse 19).

*Hopefully my spelling is correct - in both instances (i.e. first and surnames)...

Fire-and-Brimstone-Bearing Firebrand Sanders Trumps the Donald Each and Every Time...

Though I 'cannot', despite being a *lifelong dual (kiwi-American) citizen, in good conscience vote for him in this year's pivotal, even perhaps epochal, presidential election - were he the **eventual Democratic Party nominee - simply because he doesn't 'tick all the boxes', at least those that preeminently matter to me...

- that raw and ***real as, rough diamond political maverick (senator) from the northeastern shires of Vermont, personal/family ****namesake Bernie Sanders,

beats - hands down (and all the rest) - that slithery, snake-in-the-grass, snake-oil merchant *****from the Bronx, Donald J Trump, each and every time...

...whether he eventually succeeds in his presidential gambit or otherwise...

...just as the real-deal, ******finger-lickin' stuff his erstwhile equally-famous namesake 'Colonel Sanders' produced would ever trump that of a two-bit amateur, and likewise the unvarnished truth-teller ever and always trumps any and every purveyor of fake news...or, in 'the Donald's' case, an inimitable practitioner of super-*******nationalistic Machiavellian manoeuvring and realpolitik... 

*Possibly a lifetime citizenship (i.e. commencing at my birth, though as we know with one-time chess champion Bobby Fischer, by no means guaranteed one for life), though the reality of said status was only latterly acknowledged and confirmed upon my applying for a U S passport back in 1992 (or so) prior to moving there later that year for (what became) a three-year sojourn, said status indeed being denied those such as myself whilst the Reagan Administration bore sway...

**As he certainly deserved to be last time around, and was ultimately circumvented thereto by the machinations of the Hillary Clinton-supporting Democratic Party machine...

***Though, incidentally I hate/loathe/absolutely, heartily detest that ever-present inanity (of clicheville) of late, "The reality is..."...

****Being often referred to in my high school days (as some of my siblings, especially brother, doubtless were) as "Bernie", "Bernina" (after the then well-known sewing machine), etcetera... In later years this has morphed into an older church member (elder in fact) occasionally using "Bernard"
- doubtless as a term of endearment...

*****I do believe (as my all-time fave singer songwriters Simon and Garfunkel might have put it)...

******Though truth be told I haven't tasted the stuff since becoming a vegetarian/vegan 35 years ago soon...

*******Actually 'penned' originally (in my draft) as supra-Machiavellian, but somehow-or-other that word denoting misguided patriotism slipped in, and ********seeing it now it doesn't seem out of place...

********Even conjuring up for me those timeless words of that great wartime British bulldog, Winston Churchill, who if I'm not mistaken - and I admittedly may well be! - first coined that memorable line that 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'...

Postscript (Tuesday March 3rd, following 'South Carolina' and just prior to 'Super Tuesday'; and as word has only recently reached God's Own of the retirement from the Democratic race of first Pete Buttigieg and now Amy Klobuchar):

Looks like the Establishment's at it again...ganging up upon Bernie Sanders just as it did last time around...c/o 'the man' himself ,i.e. (now former wannabe Democratic nominee) Pete Buttigieg...

...the very fellow who, according to Wikipedia, did a thesis or the like upon the standout quality of integrity Sanders brought to American politics (back in the day when Sanders was merely an independent senator from the state of Vermont)...

Go figure, folks...but the collective opposition is really a backhanded compliment, when you think about it, much as the devil 'himself' (or rather, 'itself', as H Scott Peck so ably argues in his seminal People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil)...

only ever sending his special forces, his elite troops as it were, after anyone truly posing a threat to his (very, very temporary, and soon to expire - bigtime - and in no uncertain terms) earthly empire! 

Post-Postscript (Wednesday March 11th, NZ time...following Joe Biden's pretty clean sweep (thus far) of '*Big Tuesday', of the Michigan primary in particular)

Ask not for whom the bell tolls - mark my words: the death-knell's just (now) sounded for the American Democratic Party...post-2020, and a Trumpian victory, resounding or otherwise...it'll permanently, irretrievably, irrevocably, irreconcilably split into two major factions/rumps, and will thus never ever again wield federal/nationwide power in the United States of America...

*For want of a better descriptor (as per Mike Hosking this morn on Newstalk ZB).

And as for 'Do Gooders' Incorporated Who've Managed to Foist Upon So Many of us Unsuspecting Plebs Throughout the World their Sophisticated Notions of Reusables and Recyclables, well...Tell THAT to Ye Average Punter Now Having to Forego the Mighty Handy Use of Those Plastic Supermarket Bags Once Employed Very Handily for Lining Household Rubbish Bins and the like...

Whilst Methinks Oftentimes 'the Cops' Cop Just a Tad Too Much Flak, When - from Personal Experience of Late - Their Ranks are Chockablock Full of Some Really Decent Ladies and Gentlemen...

And whereas my (aforementioned) 'observation' most definitely pertains to my own beloved land of Aotearoa-New Zealand, and doubtless many other - *at least largely Western, or at least European - lands of the world...

I'll just as readily concede that the systemic police brutality, nay outright criminality, exposed so damningly by said media throughout the U S of A over the past few years...

does indeed give any thinking - and moreover truly feeling - man, woman or child due cause for concern, and for pause in being too footloose and fancy free with baskets of bouquets (in that particular direction), that's for sure...

*And no, my comment therein is hardly xenophobic or imperialistic etcetera, simply the result of well-studied listening in to various media channels over my entire lifetime...though at times, I'll readily concede a whole lot quicker than many others, selfsame 'media' (to greatly generalize about the mainstream purveyors thereof) is ofttimes far from the standard-bearer of truth personified (as the recent decrying of all things 'fakenews'-wise might tend to suggest (and thereby fool many folks))...

Yes, This Present World is Full to Overflowing with Folk who Ever and Only (Suppose Themselves to) Perceive the Splinter in the Eyes of Others...

...yet unfailingly fail to notice the glaring beam within their own...

However we are advised and warned in the strongest possible language and upon the very best authority, that

Judgment without (any/the least skerrick of) mercy will be [i.e. come to/visit]
those who have shown no mercy...

Yes, of such it might rightly be said, as it was of the baiting and caviling, quibbling 'lawyers', scribes and Pharisees who verily hounded Jesus Himself to His very death...

tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you

The True Gems in This World are Those who - like the late, great, but generally underrated Mike Moore - are Gentle on ('liberal with') Others and Hard on ('conservative with') Themselves...

...as a speaker in my particular denomination once elucidated upon at one of our annual or biannual/ biennial  'old-time' 'big tent' religious camp meetings...

...rather than those who are all too regularly tough on others and easy-ozy on/with themselves...

The contrast between the two couldn't be more stark, and heart-warming and/or bone-chilling...as Yours Truly had the great mishap to experience/encounter firsthand (once again) only yesterday...

Thankfully my LORD and Saviour is and was and has ever been of the former class...

...and that, as they say, has made all the difference in the world...

...and indeed universe...

...for all those willing to accept it...

Sending Off A True Kiwi Battler: (Though I Can't Join With Those Offering Their Heartfelt Tributes), 'in spirit' I'm one with Those Today 'Bidding Adieu' to the Best Prime Minister Aotearoa-New Zealand Almost Never Had - and then But for the Very Briefest of Periods - the 'Right Honourable' MIke Moore...

Evidently with a Christlike heart, in possessing that rarest of 'Christian' qualities, the ability to forgive those who had upset/offended/transgressed against him. Regretfully such an attribute, which made him most like His Maker/Redeemer, was simultaneously a great, if not Moore's greatest, political weakness... (according to funeral reportage on RNZ National this evening; from words of his longtime acolyte, his successor MP (in Waimakiriri, Christchurch), Clayton Cosgrove, or 'M(ike) M(oore) #2' as he was apparently known)...

Irish Nationalism Resurgent as Sinn Fein Stages Would-Be Electoral Upset in Irish Elections...

...though the post-election outcome is far from a done deal...whilst even recent Northern Irish polls - doubtless in the backwash from, and backlash over the United Kingdom's Brexiting, now all but a fait accompli - show how even a (if the barest of a) majority in that U K jurisdiction are now plumping for Irish reunification...  

So Hitler's A Jokester? -What A Sick Joke! (Reflections Upon 'New Zealand's' Win for 'Jo-Jo Rabbit' (c/o Taika Waititi) at this Year's Oscars)

Valentine's Day, 2020: Explication for Such an 'Unpatriotic' Blogpost

Yes, I refuse to join with those - including the much-feted TV3/TV1 Hollywood reporter Kimberley Crossman (I believe her name is) - who've been - understandably enough, I must concede - virtually beside themselves with bouquets innumerable for the incredible Oscar success of noted Maori actor Taika Waititi in this year's just-completed award ceremony in the U S...

For who doesn't like to celebrate, and profusely, the success of 'one of our own' in such global 'fests'?

That all doubtless being true, even irrefutable, I will never ever 'celebrate' a film which - even conceded to by said Oscar-winner himself, and pretty well any and every commentator introducing the subject, even upon the 'great day,' itself...

...in any way, shape or form - if 'merely' by its clear as *midnight comedic animatronics thereabouts - thus 'papers over' and satirizes what is generally accepted as being the darkest chapter in human history...

next to the horrid, very public, shameful and shameless execution of this species' Very Maker...and Redeemer...upon Golgotha, Calvary's **Cross some almost 2,000 years ago now...

*Yes, the saying is 'clear as daylight', but whenever and wherever Adolph Hitler's deeds are mentioned, such a word cannot decently be used in the same sentence...

**And no, I'm not hung up about whether it was a crossbeam (as commonly imagined and depicted) or simply a tree 'stake', as in a single vertical beam - quite frankly, folks, it matters diddly squat!

The REAL Stink Ain't the 'Poor-Shaming Smell' Highlighted in the Oscar-Winning Film 'Paradise'...But the Stench of Double-Standards and Hypocrisy Emanating from This Year's (and Other Recent) OSCARS

February the 14th: Explaining Why I'm Declaring Such

Where do I - can I - even begin...?

Suffice to say (for the present) that the very folk who so demonize Donald J Trump - admittedly and undoubtedly America's worst president, by a country mile, ever - and bend over backwards to placate any and every possible nuance of heightened sensibility and sensitivity in our oh so peculiarly touchy (and feely) 'generation'...

...evidently have no qualms whatsoever about downplaying, sidelining, effectively belittling the - still, and doubtless evermore -  raw sensitivities of survivors and loved ones of victims of this Planet's most atrocious sustained treatment of its own...

...which to her eminent credit the German Chancellor - unlike our own governments, both present and previous, of Aotearoa-New Zealand - has been anything but backward in making the focus of her dying days in office...doubtless, a cynic might add, with an eye to her long-term legacy...

And Yes, Bob (Sir Robert) Jones Sure Ain't the Only Fellow Who Simply Can't Suffer Fools Gladly...

Thursday February 13th: What I'm On About Here

And whilst the woman accusing Jones of blatant, unreconstruction-style racism, for which he is now in turn suing her for (character) defamation, is doubtless well within her rights to be upset, yea even verily outraged by Jones' (clearly satirical) opinion piece awhile ago (at least a good two years now, I believe)...

...hey, it's a free world and any and all of us (individually) have every right to be duly upset about any manner of 'stuff' currently 'going down' in our ever so fraught and fast-paced, frenetic and frantic, media-harried world these days...

...and moreover the absolute right and privilege to express ourselves thereabouts - people having gone to war and fought over this in WW11 and the like -

I nevertheless cannot but find myself tonight, following a lengthy 'snippet' from said trial upon TV 1's or TV 3's 6 p.m. Evening News Bulletin just a half hour ago or so, concurring with noted (independent-minded) Maori author/writer Alan Duff, who, at selfsame trial today, simply remarked...

...that though he'd never personally found Sir Bob Jones racist, more important still/by far from his point of view, was that

"there is an element in this country that takes offence at anything and everything...

...seeking to shut down legitimate debate..."

I couldn't have expressed it better myself...

Postscript (Midday, Friday the 14th of February - 'Valentine's Day', as fate would have it!)

Discretion ever being the far better side of valour (as I've occasionally stated over the blogging years, if in the more standard 'script')...

"Good on ya, (Sir) Bob", for having the presence of mind to gracefully withdraw your defamation suit; lest you - however inadvertently, otherwise be seen to join the ranks of the perennially outraged... though methinks suing for defamation - when(ever) one's 'good name' is being dragged through ye proverbial dirt and grime - is perfectly understandable, even right and proper...however (almost inevitably) unavailing, the way our injustice service works these days...

...my full understanding, even empathy thereabouts arising principally from a rather unpleasant, wholly unexpected incident occurring to Yours Truly only one-and-two-thirds years ago now...

...about which I've now (and hopefully never) any desire to 'regurgitate' (for public consumption), excepting to say/add that where one's reputation is concerned, seeking to redress that misconstruction, misrepresentation, misinterpretation is only entirely normal, a very human reaction and response to being unfairly (and even *maliciously) maligned...

*Though naturally the only sort of 'malign-ment' is ever and only of the malicious variety!

Yes, Ye Constantly 'Outraged' Outrage Industry is Starting to Really Bug - Annoy - Upset, nay, Utterly Outrage Me...-I kid ye not!

3 Days On (Thursday the 13th of February):  Yes, there'll be a whole lot more upon this matter in both this and other blogposts over coming weeks and months...

...yet even now it would appear that a crossroads of sorts has been reached - a high-water mark (zenith) leading to a subsequent and consequent nadir - and, as with the sacred cow of Political Correctness the public-at-large - at least throughout the Western World as such - is increasingly turning from it with loathing...

...seeing it for the shallow, superficial, emotive-driven react-ionary bit of flotsam and jetsam it most manifestly is (in all too many instances)... 

Speaking of Politicians Whose Star May Be Waning... Even If It Oughta Be Waxing...I Can't for the Life of Me Think of a Better Candidate Than 'Angela Merkel # 2'...

Friday the 14th of February (3 Days Later)

Though of course I know 'stuff all' about the woman primed and prepared, preened & predetermined to follow on in the not inconsiderable, even arguably herculean steps of the soon to retire, globally-respected and certainly redoubtable German Chancellor, the Eastern German-born and bred Angela Merkel...

...yes, off-hand I even *cannot state her name - my 'extensive', hastily-scribbled, copious notes thereabouts having been 'nicely' secreted to some obscure corner of the house (amidst the dust of my various and sundry pads et al) ever since hearing the news item upon a weekday edition of RNZ National's 'World Watch' midday radio programme (a couple days back)...

the two (main) 'issues' which were seen to have precipitated her premature downfall/demise were such as have been the bread-and-butter of my blogging of recent times, indeed even upon February 11th itself (when I made my initial, title-only blogpost thereabouts)...

To wit,

1: Making a joke at the expense of the ever super-sensitive trans (et al) community
2: Having the gall, the sheer temerity to essentially 'call out' the (internet-located) perennially outraged

...and for those 'high crimes and misdemeanours', doubtless worthy of the German equivalent of the threatened repercussions for the sort of things 'the Donald' has only recently emerged seriously 'scathed' through...

...she's evidently no longer a German leadership prospect, and so will no longer stand in succession line after Ms Merkel...

Utterly predictable, yes, but hardly a good development, especially not so for a nation which had heretofore pretty well dug itself absolutely and completely out of the rather sordid hole into which a one-time Chancellor with delusions of a new world order fashioned after his Aryan fantasies had well and truly dug the nation 70-some years ago now...

*Evidently (the tongue-tier) Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, though popularly referred to as 'AKK'.

Three Politicians Whose Star May Be Rising/Setting - Waning/Waxing - But Whose Impact Upon Politics (Essentially 'for Good') in the Early 20th Century/2020 Appears Undisputed...

The 'candidates' (for my bouquets) being...?

The Irish leader...a 'wannabe' Scottish premier ('First Minister'), and a would-be U S  President...

Valentine's Day, 2020

'Didya' guess (who my particular political 'notables' are/might be)? Leaving you now to surmise any possible connection you happen to see/discern between all three, they are (in the aforementioned order): *Ireland's 'Taoiseach' Leo Varadkar *Scotland's Ruth Davidson *America's Pete Buttigieg

Sunday the 16th...

In brief - and no, I won't be disclosing the 'connection' alluded to; until and unless, that is, one of you (i.e. my blogviewership) happen/s to come forth and make a guesstimate at least, coz hey, why should I do all the serious footwork, I mean, really?

- Anyhow, true to form - 'in the meantime' - I've somewhat resiled from one of my picks, and again, without my specifically stating which one, I'd like someone out there in cyberland to at least make another guess as to which one of these 'candidates' for blog-bouquetship I've now got serious second thoughts about, though it'll probably be fairly easy to guess from my subsequent 'treatment' of 'em all (in the next few paragraphs and/or days of mini-instalments herein)...

As to the (sequentially) first (as above), Ireland's 'Taoiseach' - hey, what a great word title! - I'll forego much additional for now, not because his re-instalment in the premiership there is doubtless rather problematic at present (as the recent Irish election resolves itself one way or t'other), but because I wrote reasonably extensively vis-a-vis Leo Varadkar -what I'm able to glean from this considerable distance, anyhow, and in view of the virtually nonexistent commentary over here about Irish politics (fullstop), excepting their two most recent and fairly well-publicized and canvassed referenda (on two of the major moral dilemmas/critical issues of our time on earth, i.e. abortion and same-sex marriage).

...about which - for those at all interested - I've written over the past year-and-a-bit in various and sundry blogposts (some of which are yet uncompleted), to wit

*'Partisan Political Paratrooper vis-a-vis Subtle, Serious Statesman: Though Championing a Similar Anti-Brexit Perspective, the Contrast Between Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn Couldn't Be More Gaping (September 12th, 2019, on david edwinisms)

*A Person's A Person No Matter How Small: [Pope Francis' Making A Moral Equivalence Between Contract Killing and Abortion Couldn't Be More Apt etc] Later in 2018 (I believe), and upon my original (now inactive) blogsite htp://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).

Sorry, time's been really squeezed with many unforeseen family commitments of recent weeks and months and I can't easily locate the exact info thereabouts, though those are pretty good 'stabs' therein...

To Be Continued...

Taking Pride in God's Everlasting Covenant of Mercy and Grace (and Thereby Reclaiming An Intergenerational Notification Binding Our Whole World): The - as in God's Own - Real Deal RAINBOW COALITION...for Now and Eternity

A Rarely Non-Partisan Player - or At Least Temporarily So - Upon the Highly Partisan, Ideologically-Charged, Cultural Wars-Riven Stage of Modern Era American Politics: In Bucking the Trend of his Senatorial Colleagues - However Events Ultimately Transpired, Even If President Trump was Not Impeached (a Second, and Decisive Time) - the Former Republican Presidential Contender Mitt Romney Deserves An Accolade: He Carefully Assessed and Closely Evaluated the Evidence (For and Against the Merits of Such an Impeachment 'Indictment')...and Reached a Simply Explained, Unambiguous Conclusion - of "Guilty, Ma'am (and Mssrs)"...WHATEVER his 'Honorary' Colleagues Might Think, and WHATEVER the Political (as in Electoral) Repercussions (for himself personally)

Making A Real (Heckuva, Helluva) Hoo-Ha Of Wuhan (China): A Global Epidemic, Nay Pandemic Sweeps the World, According to ye Mainstream (Western) Media ...Said Coronavirus Thus Far Having Claimed ...wait for it - (the grand total of) one, and now two! - people outside the People's Republic...

Without in any way seeking to downplay or minimize this serious health-related matter which has evidently claimed at least 425 citizens of Mainland China...

...it'd perhaps be useful to put things into a little perspective, such as the fact that every year evidently around 600,000-odd people die from ye ordinary, run-of-the-mill, garden variety 'flu' (as in influenza)...

So perhaps for once the Chinese authorities are not so very far off when expressing the utmost concern at the concurrent wave of (anti-Chinese) xenophobia increasingly - if fairly predictably - raising its ugly head in the fallout from the same, supposedly especially in the West...

....whilst at least for once acknowledging the Chinese Government's (c/o its local authorities) responsibilities thereabouts, vowing to bring the offenders to justice, and pledging better measures to prevent the same *'going forwards'...

*Much as I ever and always heartily detest the selfsame cliche, and I'm not for even a moment suggesting said powers that be employed such an abhorrent 'modernism'...

Postscript:
As with a blogpost I posted awhile ago now - vis-a-vis 'Raoul(sp?) Island' off the Bay of Plenty, to wit the tragedy afflicting visitors (mainly tourists) there when the volcano spent its long-gestated fury in no uncertain terms -

I can well appreciate the very tenor of my comments - in particular my long-winded, highfalutin' title - could well have struck some as somewhat insensitive, even heartless in view of the victims of said tragedies...

...and to that I'd have to concede: fair enough - as far as the immediate 'shock, horror' value of said comments and emphases is concerned...

However, vis-a-vis the ongoing Coronavirus, I feel compelled (as indeed I did even as early as over the wee hours following posting the same) to add the following...

...yes, if I can only - somehow-or-other - locate the same...

Postscript #1:
Indeed no less a leading light (luminary) than Steve Maharey, a senior cabinet minister in the Helen Clark Administration of 1999-2008 (here in New Zealand), upon yesterday afternoon's Newstalk ZB 'Gardening Show' with Jamie M(a)cKay, said pretty much the selfsame thing, using if anything even stronger language thereabouts...

...emphasizing the imperative - particularly in view of the (aforementioned) comparative global stats vis-a-vis ye 'good 'ole' garden variety (in)flu(enza) with its rather chilling number of fatalities annually - of keeping things in due perspective, making amongst many other similarly 'punchy' observations, one where he said that...

"There needs to be that caution...[lest we] overreach ourselves...[about how relatively dire this latest epidemic-pandemic truly is]...

...in view of what many of us, myself and clearly himself also, regard as an increasing media beat-up now fast approaching, yea surpassing - leaving in the veritable dust even - a veritable mass hysteria thereabouts...  

Transforming the American Presidency into a Literal 'Bully Pulpit', or, A Bully IS as a Bully DOES: Or If 'it' Looks Like a Bully, if 'it' Talks and Sounds Like a Bully ...Hey, How's THIS for a Real Revelation, Folks: No Quibbles - Ifs, Buts or Even Maybes - About it, 'it' IS - Beyond A Shadow of a Doubt - a Real, Identifiable, Certifiable BULLY

Threatening one's (political) opponents and critics with all sorts of - however undefined, vague and tacit/implicit - potentially scary and violent consequences/repercussions...

...simply for speaking their mind and voicing those criticisms and that opposition...

...is the stuff and traditional territory of tyrants, thugs and the like...

-the equivalent in the public square and political sphere of ye traditional schoolyard bully...

...only too used to and keen upon (pretty well literally) throwing *'his' not inconsiderable weight around...

It is - or was - the well-frequented haunt of such former Western leaders as New Zealand's own Rob (**Sir Robert David) 'Piggy' Muldoon and America's own Richard Milhaus Nixon, who, 'alongside' such international 'luminaries' as the likes of Mao Tse-Tung himself - the 'Great Leader' himself of China's Cultural Revolution - had the habit of keeping 'little red books'...in the former two instances containing the names (and addresses and contact details etc) of vocal critics and political opponents...

Yes, none of these (three), to mention but a few, were themselves strangers to employing the full armoury of the state - and some pretty fancy personal footwork in Nixon's and Muldoon's cases - when it helped in furthering, in prosecuting their own (generally small and sordid) agendas...

No, they each/all had no, or at least very few, qualms whatsoever about engaging the not inconsiderable power, leverage and tools/weapons of the state (security apparatus - and all the rest) in forwarding their own personal vendettas at whosoever they perceived as standing in their way...

Likewise - yes, at last the penny drops, for those held in a state of now intolerable suspense - 'the Donald' (i.e. United States President Donald J Trump) has once again wandered - quite knowingly and deliberately - into some dangerous, if not altogether unfamiliar, territory...

...by - rather explicitly and even with no holds barred at all - giving it to and sticking the boot into his former National Security Advisor, (the extremely hawkish) John Bolton...as the latter (at least for a brief spell; that's now all of course well and truly ended), following the public release of his book, was used by the media and Senate/Congressional Democratic lawmakers as a foil against Trump as the prospect of his being subpoena(e)d to serve as a Senate witness in his (now soon-to-end) impeachment trial/s temporarily approached high dudgeon...

...just as the President had ***previously 'served it' to the likes of former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson...

- hey, is there some sort of pattern emerging here?

In the process, naturally enough, Trump readily evoked (fairly just-below-the-surface) memories of his 2015/2016 presidential election campaign rallies... in which, you'll well remember, he 'outed' various highly vocal and disruptive individual protestors, openly threatening them via his lackeys and rally attendants with some rather unsavoury and thuggish repercussions, even outright violence...

But yes, though it seems a supreme understatement and anticlimax to state so now, that is - however typical and even predictable Trumpish conduct and modus operandi - plainly and simply completely unacceptable and intolerable behaviour for any leader anywhere in any sphere of public activity...

...but of course all the more so for any sitting President of the United States of America, one who in the very next breath is boasting he not only warrants re-election to arguably the world's highest political position, but declaring it's effectively a fait accompli, even a 'slam dunk' sort of a thing...

*Though, hey, let's not be sexist here...the most egregious example thereof during this particular pleb's high schooling was 'one' of three gals ('classmates'), who, back in the halycon years of 1979-1980 or so, successively reduced three female music teachers virtually to tears - and, no doubt alongside a nervous breakdown in each instance, certainly an early retirement...as we went through that many in just the one year...

**No, honorary titles are sure as heck no respecter of persons, that's for sure...

***Doubtless now among numerous - innumerable - others, and yes, at this stage I've lost count...

'Mike' (Michael Kenneth) Moore: Despite Accruing A Mere Footnote/Asterisk in the (Minimalist) Wikipedia Entry (for his name), As Perhaps the Last Remaining/Surviving 'Gentleman Politician' of 1970s'/1980s' New Zealand Political Life and Times, Many will Only Remember a Supremely Decent Individual who ever and always Conducted himself upon the Political Stage Here with the Utmost Grace and Aplomb - and (Genuinely) Good Humour...and yes, also such Attributes as 'Street Smarts', the 'Common Touch', a Natural (and Positive) Populism, and Much Insight, Perception...An All-round Asset to the NZ Political Scene in Almost Every Which Way...

"This Thing is From Me" - "Let God Be True, and Every Man a Liar"...saying, "My Counsels Will Stand, and My Purposes Will Be Fulfilled": Frail Humans Fail in Bending Every Effort and Manipulating Every Opportunity to Scupper Predetermined Divine Determination to Enable the United Kingdom's (once more Great Britain's) Decision to Exit European Union Entanglements

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

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

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

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

-eugenics/cloning etcetera...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Like the rest of us, surely...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Awhile On (Tuesday the 21st)

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

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

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

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

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

said show ticks all the boxes...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...Humphrey's incredible offering...

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...for time and eternity...

Nuff Said -end of story.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Yes), to be continued...

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

Ever bearing in mind that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the alternative, Left-wing media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nuff Said!

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Gospel of John, 16:8-11)

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

LORD of LORDS and KING of KINGS...

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

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

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

were

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

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

*Aka Carroll Edwin Spinney, I believe...

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

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

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

(A couple days on)

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

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

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

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

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

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

*Bamboozled presently as to the correct spelling...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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