I Realize you Might not Happen to Agree, But This is How I See it Anyway

The U.N.'s response to the Ukrainian crisis has indeed been appalling (or whatever term the PM used), and does indeed show the travesty (my words) of what that once august and esteemed institution has long since become... And China has indeed been - well beyond simply - remiss with their wet bus ticketed approach to 'censuring' Russia - not! - over its shameful actions in Ukraine... But where prithee has Jacinda Ardern been this past week?  Oh, Australia (for all manner of seemingly relatively inconsequential meetings here, there and everywhere with seemingly everyone and everybody) But why not in Ukraine, having been extended a special invitation thereto? A mystery indeed, and as Mike Hosking well inquires, pretty well inexplicable, and such an unaccountable decision that, like Hosking, I too cannot but assume there must be some other underlying reason...and one that seemingly could only be of very real concern (to NZers in particular)...

Invercargill's newish National M.P. Penny Simmonds being one among many to shine in that lively parliamentary tete-a-tete the other week...- as she indeed has in other debates over recent times...

*In addition to the overly-maligned - yet simultaneously almost universally recognized - Attorney-General (et al) David Parker, may I herein salute... *the ever-available, present-day 'Minster of Everything' Chris Hipkins...sure, hard-working and effective, but moreover ever sunny and moreover seemingly a citadel of impeccable integrity... *Labour's Defence Minster Peni Henare, himself a likable and honourable character, and withal a generous-minded and independent-speaking person - whom Yours Truly a year or so ago, incidentally, hitched a ride with a fellow who'd attended a conference whereat Henare spoke, a fact I uncovered after I'd successfully guesstimated that Henare was the speaker thereat... *The Government's new Justice Minster, the rising and rising and rising Kiri Tapu-Allen, whose own integrity is palpably evident with even just a cursory glance at her appearances whenever the House is in session...and moreover her own likeability and pleasant - oh ...

Joyce's appearance upon Kerre Woodham-McIvor's Morning Show the other week was itself a blessing to listen in to... ...as he pointed out the unfortunate, disappointing (my words) tendency of the present Government - so majorly witnessed during covid's initial foray into NZ Inc - to listen to and give priority to the views of bureaucrats over those on the ground floor... ...so signally seen when the utter dearth of 'PPE' (i.e. personal protective gear (equipment)) amongst those at the cliff face, health care workers in all their varied manifestations across the length and breadth of the land - as far as these folk were concerned, anyhow - was ignored by a Government obsequiously worshipping at the altar of their Wellington-based bureaucracy...

His breadth of vision and depth of insight upon matters political is ever a sheer wonder to behold - or, more aptly, tune in to - and in particular his inherently contrarian views on so many topics under discussion... ...especially over recent times upon the neglect (in the mainstream media discourse) of those conscientious objectors in wartime such as James K Baxter's (grandfather?) Archibald Baxter, no less... ...and over recent weeks of yet another evidently wrongly incarcerated individual, Allen Hall this time I believe... Finlayson's pointed remarks about New Zealand Police prosecutions starting to make us (i.e. Aotearoa-New Zealand) look much like a tinpot banana republic being almost too close to the mark for (due) comfort...

Hey, if you disagree with me, just check out the intent(jon) of their 'author' and 'founder', the great Maori political leader and one-time cabinet minister (sir) Apirana Ngata... Postscript: Curiously enough, the very 'sticking point' in General Election 2008, in which Yours Truly sought to secure the two necessary nominees for standing and placing my name upon the ballot paper. (For the second nominee, that is; but until I'm able to secure the approval of one individual concerned, I'm not (ethically) at liberty to share with y'all the relevant goss thereabouts)... But suffice to say that one of the two individuals concerned was Maori, and quite a mover and shaker in his own quiet and humble way, far as I can discern, and has now - rather prematurely, at that - passed on from this life; a next-door neighbour of mine for a short spell while I stood (an an independent) for the Dunedin South electorate... ...and indeed I may well have not even asked wh...

So, far from pure (and puerile) pedantry, the distinction is light years from being merely semantic.   Indeed, those often, even generally most vocal - and arguably, at times, vociferous - in regards to this issue themselves make no bones about the distinction when discussing other life-and-death issues, for instance the rights and wrongs of fighting (and killing) in war, the ethics of capital punishment, euthanasia etcetera; pointing out that - at least from a purely biblical, scriptural standpoint - whenever God seemed to require (or at least sanction/condone) killing by His people as a people   or as a theocratic nation-state... that was never tantamount to (premeditated) murder as such, indeed far from it...