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Friday 27 February 2015

They Kill Soldiers Don't They?



Should we send troops into a war zone?   Knowing that they might well become casualties?
Well the first question I have to ask is:  Are they going to be compelled to go?    If one of the few should express a great concern about the idea would he/she be forced to man up? 
I don’t know for certain but I suspect not.
In fact I believe if they asked for volunteers they might be overwhelmed by the number of our brave lads & lasses clamouring to offer their services.
The whole thing smells strongly of adventure after all.
Are we not in danger of forgetting what the purpose of the armed forces is all about?
Soldiers protect us.  Sometimes they protect us by going into war zones.
Ah, but it’s not really `our’ war is it?
Hmm…..it’s fast becoming everybody’s war isn’t it?
But what if one of them is killed?
Tragic though that may be in the final analysis soldiers do sometimes get killed don’t they?

Tuesday 24 February 2015

David Bain: Should He Get Compensation?



I say yes.
I have to admit they were an odd lot though, the Bains I mean.  You probably only have to ask their neighbours, not that I have ever been in a position to do so of course.  Then there was all that home schooling they were into at one time.  We all know that children who are not forcibly made to fit into the mould are destined to become square pegs and  it stands to reason they’d massacre their entire family without batting an eyelid.   Then of course there was the paper round which was a very odd thing for a twenty two year old to be doing.  And that sweater!  Enough said!  Anybody wearing a sweater like that surely would end up with a grudge against humanity never mind whoever knitted it for him and placed it under the Christmas tree.
Apart from all that don’t you think  David had a shifty look about him?   It  made you wonder if he could bring himself to look you in the eye which is undoubtedly a sure sign of a mass killer. Oh another thing – his eyes were too close together.  Has anybody else noticed that?  What more evidence could you want?
And as that Bryan Bruce chap keeps saying on the wireless:  if David didn’t slaughter the lot of them then we are just going to have to prove that Robin did it.   Stands to reason doesn’t it?   If not David it must have been his Dad.
Not some homicidal maniac stepping in off the street then?
Not even a neighbour with a gripe about home schooling?
Not a very irate parent whose child was forced into a religious instruction half hour by Robin?  They can become very angry when something like that happens.  You hear them on talk back radio all the time.
No – if it wasn’t David it’s obvious that it absolutely HAD to be Robin!  
Just give him the money.

Thursday 19 February 2015

Coming Out of the Rightist Closet



Before I launch into today’s rant I have to admit that politically I am somewhere to the far right of Vlad the Impaler.   Not only would I bring back hanging, I would also consider the chopping off of hands for minor theft and definitely I’m all for castration for rapists and those who sexually molest children.   So there we are – at least you know where I stand.
I think it must this leaning so far to the right that causes me so much ire when I see incidents such as that experienced by John Key recently, being harangued and jostled whilst going about his prime-ministerial business.   What exactly were the `protestors’ going to do if they actually got their hands on him I wonder? And why do so many among us think it’s perfectly all right for him to be tangibly intimidated in this way?
I posed the point to one or two friends though I know them to be rather more to the left than I am – in fact I’m seriously wondering if I’m actually still on their `friends’ list now I have totally emerged from the Rightist closet.
`He’s such a slimy bugger,’ said one woman as she hunched over her muffin and short black, adding that she didn’t like him at all and looking as if she would very much like to ask why it was that I appeared so fond of him; except she didn’t.
`So is it OK then to physically jostle him?’
`He deserves it,’ she said for no very clear reason.
Another was far more forthright, `He’s just a rich prick who doesn’t care about anybody except himself and his rich mates,’ she said vehemently.
`So that makes it OK to push and shove him does it?’
`Serves him right,’ she said, attacking her beetroot & feta salad viciously, `Might make him think!’
Now I have to make it totally clear that both these women are into good works, prison reform and animal welfare and I wouldn’t dream of broaching the topic of bringing back hanging with either of them.
I should also add here and now that I have never had any dealings with John Key, our paths have never crossed, but I have to say that what I like about him is his up-front take it or leave it honesty.  And I really do admire the way he doesn’t get into name calling and jeering and sneering at those who do not share his views.
And while we are visiting this topic, have you ever heard of a group of Right Wingers like myself setting out to berate and publicly manhandle the Lefties whose policies we disapprove of?

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Lunch at SeaCow - Dinner at The White Rabbit

Jackie, formerly of Remuera, has upsized to a splendid house on Mission Bay Beach.
`Well, the garden's much smaller,' she said defensively when I called by to view it.  I'm telling you - it took time to view - especially if you viewed all the storage space.  I was drooling!  When we had done with viewing we went on to Coffee Club round the corner where we spoke of many things, as you do and drank iced chocolate and shared a piece of chocolate cake.  All very agreeable.
Then, on a whim, Jackie suggested we should go to SeaCow for lunch because it was so close by it seemed wrong to ignore it.  So we did and ate, among other things, seared scallops.  Neither of us could believe that on Tuesdays their lunches cost a mere ten dollars.  I kid you not - you should try them.    We both left feeling more than replete. So when, a hour or so later, I got home to be greeted by the husband  telling me he had booked a table at The White Rabbit for dinner, as you no doubt can visualise, I was less than totally thrilled.
However, I know better than to complain, so off we went.  
`Peter Calder says the food is very good,' the husband informed me, ordering the fish stew which was called something else but it was in fact fish stew.    It was indeed very good but the charred bread served with it was not.    As an afterthought I had ordered a side dish of chips (they sounded as if they might be calorie free) - they were the best I have ever tasted anywhere in over forty years of regular sampling restaurant chips.  Altogether an over-eating sort of day.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Just so impressed with some artists



Don’t you just admire the `artist’ behind the currently much discussed offensive tee-shirt?   How wonderful to be like he/she, so endowed with nerve, daring, audacity, etc.  It fair takes your breath away doesn’t it?
Even given the undeniable fact that some of us choose to be offended by such objects and find it challenging to view them as art there is perhaps a small case here for freedom of speech. 
Nevertheless you can’t help wondering if the oh so bold tee-shirt creator would have been quite so  keen to have a bash at treating other religious faiths with  the same fearless disregard of consequence.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

TV Cooking Shows



I really do enjoy cooking though maybe less than I used to but still find cookery books quite compelling bedtime reading.   I used to look forward to cooking for dinner parties until the arthritis got to the thumbs and made it not quite as thrilling an experience as it once had been.    When we first got Sky TV I fell in love with the Food Channel and was sometimes known to watch it mid-afternoon.  And oh dear, when we finally sold up our large house in St. Heliers and moved to city living I grieved for my big kitchen for a solid year or more – in fact I only really began to accept the smaller one when younger son, on a visit from Shanghai pointed out that galley kitchens are much easier all round to work in and that I had plenty of bench space so what was I going on about?    
So I stopped going on about it and switched on for inspiration as to what I might usefully cook in my own personal galley.  And to be totally honest I rather enjoyed those interminable cooking shows for the first few months.  I’m serious here, I watched them and learned from them.    However, even I, a dedicated Foodie, am well and truly repelled by the endless stream on the small screen of would-be cooks tearfully telling us how they burnt the caramel or why their eggs curdled.   Night after night it seems that if we dare to tune in we are confronted by yet another distraught kitchen loser.    Are there really still pockets of keen viewers out there -  perhaps in deepest Oamaru?