WisteriaDrapedWishingwells

Tuesday 1st January
Last night the kids and I went up to the clay hills to watch all the fireworks going off at midnight. We were able to see many, including the fireworks going off at the top of the sky tower. It was brilliant and a nice way to see the New Year in.
This first day of January in the year two thousand and eight sees the first child death in New Zealand for this year. A four month old baby girl died of head injuries, as a result of abuse, at 5.00am at Starship. So much for Sue Bradford's no smacking bill!
The weather is incredibly hot and muggy here, just unreal.Down south they hit 30 yesterday and I have no idea what the humidity level is at, but it has got to be 90% at least.
My neighbours had a party that ended at around 7.30 this morning so, today I feel as though I haven't slept for a week. Anyway, this is the first blog for 2008 and it is kind of boring, but that is not always a bad thing.
Laterz

Friday 4th January
Word in Pakistan is that now they are going to let Scotland Yard come in and investigate Benazir Bhutto's murder. Thing is, there's not really that much of a need. There has been video footage aired that clearly shows a man pointing a gun at her and shooting her at least three times. From the look of the blood in the car where she fell down, you can see that she lost a lot of blood. There's no way she was killed by shrapnel, as she was already inside the car mortally wounded when the bomb went off and her car was bullet proof, so no way could any shrapnel have hit her.
Anyway, it is just another example of the West trying to impose their idea of democracy in a country where democracy would simply just make it worse. I already had the blog about democracy and really don't want to rehash it, but there is a big difference between democracy and a free country. You see, democracy really reflects the will of those with the most dollars to buy party alliances and pay for promises to be kept once in power if the rich endorse them so that they may win, through party donations etc etc. Democracy is not indicative of a free society, it is simply the recurring suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time...usually the half being right part applies only to the rich or the rich elite.
If you live in a democracy and you still have people living on the streets, going hungry and not getting proper health care, how is that a free society? Oh that's right, the politicians are free to ignore them. That is the only kind of freedom found in a democracy.
My country is supposedly a democracy, land of the free and all that, but, if you spank your child and the authorities find out, you will be charged, tried and if convicted, possibly jailed and your name recorded evermore as a child abuser.
Schools have now made policy regarding what you can and cannot put in your child's lunchbox. A lot of foods have been banned and most schools only allow children to drink water during the day at school. What is water full of? There's less poison in Pepsi!
If your child is not fully vaccinated by age five, chances are that your child will not be allowed to start school, so parents don't really have a choice because it is illegal to keep your child out of school. Thus, to an extent, they have taken away our right to raise our children as we see fit.
You are no longer allowed to smoke in bars or pubs. You are not allowed to smoke on school fields during out of hours sports events and at most sports fields you are not allowed to smoke period. This is slowly being extended to some town streets and the move is on to make it a crime to smoke in your car.
Our country is no longer allowed to be called a Christian nation, even though our national anthem is "God save the King/Queen".
Any alterations to the building structure of your house, up to and including verandas/porches, have to have Council approval or they are deemed illegal. You have to register your car, your dogs and your boats, trailers and motorbikes.
You are not allowed to do anything that makes other ethnicities miss out on services. You are not allowed to run a European daycare centre or have a Department of European Affairs or even have a European Medical centre. However, you are allowed to have Maori only daycare centres, kindergartens, Colleges and scholarships. You are allowed to have Indian, Chinese, Maori medical centres. You are allowed to have a Department of Maori Affiars, loans and other such services, but if you do it for European, you will be in BIG trouble, Mister!
You are not allowed to deprive people of access to your churches or other buildings based upon ethnicity, unless of course, you are Maori, Indian, Chinese or Martian.
You are not allowed to use any kind of name that is derogatory to any ethnicity, unless, of course, you are Maori. (Check out the TV show Bro-town...it is the biggest perpetrator of racial slurs but, because it is presented from the Maori point of view, they can say what they like. They deride Indians, Pasifika and European people, sometimes they deride even themselves, so I suppose that makes it okay!)
You are not allowed to just fell a tree on your property if it is clogging up your drains or whatever, especially if it is a native. You have to have council approval to cut down a native tree on YOUR property!
You have to be registered to vote (it is a crime if you are not registered).
You must carry your photo driver licence at all times while driving. To not have your identification is a punishable crime.
To get anything at the bank, you must have your photo driver licence or photo passport.
To get out any sum of money over five thousand dollars (this sum may in fact be less) from the bank you must give the bank 24 hours notice.
You can only withdraw up to $850.00 dollars per day on your EFTPOS card, even if your have millions of dollars. Cheques in this country are almost defunct and almost no one accepts them.
It is illegal to post money to someone, even a gift of ten dollars in a card, to your son or daughter, is a crime.
It is no longer acceptable to hold a protest without prior consent of town council or city council. If you do, it will get nasty with Police involvement.
You can no longer take your dog to most beaches during the summer months. Almost all beaches ban dogs in the winter too.
Students cannot ride the school bus or take books from the public library or school library without a photo student ID. (Yeah, they are getting them used to it young!)
No longer can you take a tent and just set up camp somewhere for a holiday...most places require payment or a permit...they police this by putting up signs that say "No Camping after 9.00pm".
As a farmer, you cannot simply kill and donate meat to charity. You must account for every kill on your farm, for tax purposes. It is amazing how many sheep and cows stagger off the edge of cliffs on farms in New Zealand, even on farms where there are no cliffs!
There are so many other stupid, nit picking laws that I would be here all day and all night if I were to list them all. Democracy a free and equal society? Only if you are rich or of a certain ethnicity. The bottom line in my country, you are the worse off than anyone else not if you are Maori and poor, but if you are white and poor.
My personal opinion is that a free society should be indicative of being able to raise your children as you see fit. You should be able to feed them as you see fit. You should be able to believe what you want to believe and be proud of it, not punished for it. You should have the freedom to live out your life in good health and in a safe environment. People should not be going hungry in this world anywhere and people should not be going without health care. There is absolutely no need for it whatsoever, but that some men are greedy. The controls in a free society should be minimal at best and yet yes, there does have to be laws that protect people from crime. Bottom line, people are people and all men are created equal. Your entitlement should be based upon need, not upon what ethnicity you had the good fortune to be born into.
We do not live in a free society if we live in a Democracy. We live in a tightly controlled screwed up version of almost Communisim, except that equal distribution of wealth is not a feature of a Democracy.
And people sit there scratching their heads wondering why places like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan resist Democracy!
Laterz

Ps and this is for those who might be inclined to point the racism finger in my direction, I am of Maori descent, as well as European. My children are also of Maori descent as well as European, therefore, I have licence to say whatever I want.
Have a really nice day!

Saturday 5th January
Kenya has exploded into ethnic violence following what has been deemed as possible election rigging. The scenes playing out on television are terrible. I saw one young guy being hacked to death with a machete. Obviously they did not show the entire attack upon him, just the first four or five strikes, but they told the viewing audience that he was subsequently hacked to death.
The U.N should get in there now because as of yesterday's date, there were 300 dead and 70'000 displaced. That number will only increase if nothing is done. But then again, why would anyone do anything? It is the same old story, if an ethn ic war broke out in America or Britain and the death toll was 50, it would dominate television all day and all night. But, funnily enough, when tsunamis, earthquakes or bombs go off killing people not of anglo-saxon descent, the Western world pays it very scant attention. Makes me sick.
It is like many of the famines that are still in progress today, the UN saw them coming yet did absolutely nothing, leaving the bulk of the work to extremely underfunded relief agencies such as the Red Cross and Save the Children. It is hard to keep draining your pockets when big wealthy corporations sit back and donate a pittence of what they have, while ordinary folks give more than they can afford and the problem just keeps growing.
Uneven distribution of wealth again.
Look, if every top actor, super model and musician in Britain, Australia, Europe and America gave one million dollars each (and let us face it, that would be like me donating ten cents of my entire wealth by comparison) the problem would be solved overnight. But there is just too much emphasis placed on decadence and not enough emphasis placed upon the basic concept of humanity.
People are more concerned about Brittney Spears enduring her own self-inflicted nightmare of too much drugs, booze, whoring around, irresponsible parenting, drunk driving and general middle finger in your face to authority to be concerned about real issues. I try to care about the ignorant decadent, I truly do except that these days, I can hardly muster up a sigh for them. They can tell you the latest sport results and yet they would be hard pressed to tell you where Kenya even is, let alone what is happening there.
Men are being hacked to death, women are being raped, and helpless children are dying, but hey, you have your cold beer in the fridge and the sport is on in an hour, you know where your next meal is coming from and no one is chasing you with a machete, so you're okay thanks very much for asking!
Obviously that does not apply to everyone. A few people can be bothered. But it is like that old saying I heard in a Nicholas Cage Movie, "Lord of War" (about the illegal gun trade), "Those who know don't care any more and those and those who care don't know."
I hate this f#@ing world today, it truly sucks!
Laterz

Sunday 6th January
Well it has cooled off a little today, which is good because the heat was getting a little much. I like winter and spring the best of all the seasons.
Found a dead cat today. It had been run over during the night and no one had stopped to claim it, so I brought him home and buried him. Marked his grave with a Yucca. He is the third cat to be buried in my garden here and none of those three were mine. I have one buried here that was ours, Malfoy, but he died in 2006.
I don't understand how people can know that their pets have gone missing and yet they never go looking for them. Or they see a dead animal on the side of the footpath and just walk by like it isn't their problem. They are happy to leave it there decaying like it simply doesn't count for anything. Animals deserve dignity just as humans do. If God is aware of every sparrow that falls to the ground dead, He is most certainly aware of every other animal that does, so, in my opinion, animals should be treated with respect and dignity, even in their death.
That is one thing about me that people find strange and almost bizarre. At my other house, I lost count of how many cats I picked up off the road and buried. It is silly, but I always try to remember to name them and put a small soft toy in with them. Isn't that dumb? And I always cry. Every time I bury one of these poor little creatures I cry like it was my cat. The one I buried today was black and I called him Arthur, although I forgot to check if he was a boy or a girl.
The last one I buried last year, I think I called him Fluffy. He had gotten his foot caught in a pool fence and the people who owned the property must have heard him crying before he died in the heat of the day and through stress. I went mad at them! Anyway, I untangled his foot and brought him home and buried him too.
I have been this way since I was a little kid. Every time I saw a stray dog or cat (actually I never knew if they really were stray or not, I was only little!) I used to have to stop and cuddle them or pat them. Often I found it hard to leave them, consequently I was almost always late for school from about the age of five to seven. Nothing seemed more important to me than to stop and pat the animals who looked as though they belonged to no one. In my teenage years I started burying dead animals like cats, that were left on the road and never claimed. I just cannot simply walk away.
If I ever won a million dollars, I would start up a sanctuary for unwanted dogs and cats. None would ever be out down unless illness made their lives torment. Other than that, all would live out the natural span of their lives in comfort, peace and ease. I would also have a "Homestay" for animals of wealthy people and that side of the business would help fund the sanctuary side. To make it even better, I would try to secure the services of a vet I personally know who would treat the animals at minimal cost. It would be really neat to be able to do that, but I will never win a million bucks, so it is merely a dream and yet, we all have to have those, right?
I don't care if people think I am crazy. I really don't care. I will never change because I cannot help what I am or how I feel nor what compassion drives me to doing, even if it seems banal to other people.
Laterz

Ps it just occured to me today that I never kept last year's resolution. I decided around New Year last year that I would submit at least one piece of writing to a publisher every month. Want to know how many pieces of writing I actually submitted?
None.

Monday 7th January
Not much happening today, except that I did watch an interesting YouTube doco. It is called Waco Revelations and is a 13 part series. It was interesting to see what things went on behind the scenes and to see a lot of the agencies involved trying to cover their butts and justify their actions. What amazes me is that none of the players were ever accused of a crime when it is clear that what they did there went horribly wrong.
My daughter burnt her leg with the hair straightener last Friday and I had to take her back to the docs today to have her burns dressed etc. Thank goodness I live in a country where we have free health care or else I would be in the hole for thousands already.
The doc says that he does not think that the burns will leave long term scars, but he said he will know more in a few days. Mean time, I have to take her in every day to have the bandages changed. Hair straighteners, who would have thought!
Laterz

Tuesday 8th January
Heard something really interesting on the Alex Jones show today. On the land where David Koresh and his family were slaughtered, years before, possibly one hundred years or more before, there was an Indian massacre on exactly the same land.
Further to the fact that Mt Carmel has a lot of blood in the land, the authorities now want to run the NAFTA Superhighway right through the very land that the new church has been built on. Talk about "having it in" for the Branch Davidians, now they want to mow down the church that was lovingly rebuilt by kind folks from all over the USA.
The US government has already denied that NAFTA exists, and yet many people have been able to prove it with a very big paper trail. One man has even managed to get maps of where it is to go and, oddly enough, it is a survivor of the Mt. Carmel slaughter who has managed to get them. The majority of US Government, at the moment, is unbelievably criminal and really do not care who they rape or what they plunder, such is their greed for power and control.
The elite are out of control.
I had this really wild thought last night and I was wondering about the push to have the 6th Amendment of the Constitution to be changed so that foreigners may in fact be allowed to run for president (it was being done in the interests of Arnold Swazeneggar being allowed to run for not just Governor, but President). I wondered whether, (assuming Hilary Clinton were to get into power) whether she might follow through with the amendment change? If she did, could it be that something mysteriously happens to her Vice President and Arnold Swarzeneggar becomes her Vice President? Worse still, perhaps they'll assassinate her, but it won't look like that, and install Arnold Swarzeneggar as President of the United States? I know it sounds really far-fetched, but if you had posed the events of 9/11 (and all that has been discovered about it since) as an idea, before it had actually happened, no one would have believed that either.
Just makes me wonder because Giuliani is a limp wimp who will not make it to the Whitehouse. Hillary is just not Whitehouse material either, although she would be continuing the Bush/Clinton/Elite Dynasty, which means that the Elite plans could progress along uninterrupted. But knowing Arnold Swarzeneggar's past and some of the things that he has said, (there is a very beastly side to Arnold that is almost terrifying) he would DEFINITELY make the kind of leader who could heartlessly betray the people of America in a way that would make what George W Bush did seem like a Sunday school trick.
I do not know exactly how American politics work, nor what the rules of engagement are, regarding one's Vice President, but I would be interested to know (if anyone reading this could tell me) if it were possible for this kind of scenario to happen, theoretically speaking? Assuming also that a Government would change the 6th Amendment of the Constitution...remember, the Government pretty much shredded Posse Comatatis (sp) and enacted the Patriot Act, practically shredding your 1st Amendment and 2nd Amendment rights. Understanding that they have done this already, without the consent of the American public, then it is reasonable to assume that they may adjust the 6th too...at least I think it is the 6th that speaks of who can run as president and who cannot.
Leak it, deny it and then do it. Seems to be the formula that they have been following for a while now.
Laterz

Wednesday 9th January
Well, what do you know, there has been a breakthrough in the Madeline McChan case...the little British girl who went missing in Portugal last year. It would seem that, after all, the parents have been directly implicated in her death, along with another woman. Right at the start I thought that the whole thing seemed weird, I mean, who in their right mind, when visiting a foreign country, would leave their children sleeping in a hotel room alone and go off to a restaraunt? You wouldn't even do that in your own country let alone in a strange one. And to boot, Madeline's parents were not exactly poor so they could have afforded to hire a nanny to stay in the hotel room with the kids. So it will be in teresting to see what has developed since yesterday. I have not read the Herald online yet, so do not know. Perhaps I should have read it before writing this?
Saw Hillary Clinton on TV last night and I have to say that she looks terrible! Apparently she is falling behind in the polls too and, short of a little election rigging, is not likely to make it to the Whitehouse. But, stranger things have happened haven't they?
There was also an incident yesterday between Iranian and American boats in the Gulf of Humoz(sp) and America is making a really loud noise about it but I did hear, somewhere else that the Americans were actually in Iranian waters when the incident occured, not in international waters as it was officially reported.
The goings on in Pakistan have died down to absolutely nothing, well at least the news isn't reporting anything and most eyes seem to still be upon Kenya.
Laterz

Thursday 10th January
I saw this ad on TV today for a CD collection of soft rock classics. The really strange thing was that I had almost every song from the collection that they were advertising...and it is like a twenty CD set. So now, through watching that ad, I am absolutely certain in the knowledge that I am now, finally a fully fledged member of the sad old fart club. Just like John Cusack in the movie Hi Infidelity, I keep my CDs and albums in biographical order.
I have to go buy my rabbit a new cage today because she has eaten hers...yes, you did not read incorrectly nor did I write in error, she ate her cage. Silly bunny! The other one dug a hole and got out and we had to chase it around the lawn!
Laterz

Friday 11th January
It would seem that the latest incident between Iran and America may have been a Black Ops provocation exercise. It is said, and keep in mind, I am only repeating what was said here, that George Bush couldn't get them through the nukes avenue, so now he is going to clandestinely create an incident in order to provoke the Iranians into doing something back. Iran's reaction to provocation might be small, but it it said that any kind of retaliation will be enough to give George what he wanted to begin with.
Also, something else interesting here, there are murmurings of George Bush perhaps, and this is a big PERHAPs, creating some kind of incident where he will declare Martial Law before his term, as President, is over. I think I bandied this suspicion around about two or three years ago, and it was me simply playing with ideas, I did not get the idea from anywhere.
It is true that I have been aware of an American President's ability to declare Martial Law, and thus being able to remain in sole power, since 1984. Barry Smith first wrote about it way back then but, at the time, it did not seem to be an era where any president would really do such a thing. With George Bush, more than ever, I think it is a very real possibility. Why do I think this?
A woman in the Whitehouse or a black man? Come on, do you really think the elite will be very keen on either. Maybe they will, but I find it difficult to accept that they would, without their hands remaining on the wheel for the entire duration of the presidency...well that's kind of a mute point, I don't think their hands have been off since Reagan. To my mind, there is no real candidate for the presidency of the United States, not as far as the "old boy's club' goes. But it is true that only time will tell.
Seems Diebold has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar...again. Barak Obama was leading in New Hampshirew in a poll taken only days before the primary and then suddenly Hillary beat him out. Even the people who lay odds on bets are absolutely dumbfounded and cannot work out how that happened. Easy, it happened the same way as it did in Florida almost four years ago. The only person who will get into office there is the person whom best serves the special interest groups such as CRR, TC, BG and all those other elite companies, structures and groups. I think we are at a crucial time in world history.
Also, President Bush announced that there should be a peace deal between Palestine and Israel within a year which means, in his words, that Palestine will have its own recognised state. This is a critical thing, particularly as far as biblical prophecy is concerned, you see, it states in the book of Revelation that the beast would broker peace for seven years but that it will last only three. It is not worded exactly that way, but it is pretty close. Thing is that whoever brokers that peace deal could be clearly recognised as the beast. If Bush brokers it, or his people broker it and he endorses it, then bingo, there he is.
Other things that are happening in the world at the moment are also indicative of end times. Financial institutes are falling over daily and the talk was recession but now there are murmurings of depression. They say that the next depression will make the last look like good times and thus that fits in with the prophecy pretty well. Not to mention the diseases and rumours of wars etc.
Not many people these days hold much stock in biblical prophecy, but I find it fascinating and I do believe that what was foretold to happen, (what John saw on the island of Patmos) will happen. We are rocking and rolling already, I think.
Laterz

Saturday 12th January
This election fraud thing is getting really big over in the States with many people coming out and saying that something is very wrong with the results. It will be interesting to see what happens with a recount but, if the recount is ocnducted by the same company that too kthe original vote, then chances are that the same phony result may ensue.
It is unbelievalbly hot here. Incredibly so. I do not remember it being this hot last summer. Spent most of the day in the pool.
Jonty got a good score at K-Mart the other night...he scored an $80.00 scooter for $50.00.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that Sir Edmund Hillary died on Saturday? Or was it Friday? Might have been Friday. Anyway, the Government has decided to give him a State funeral, which is interesting because all the guy did was climb a mountain. It is not like he rushed into a raging inferno and rescued two hundred children! Aren't I horrible? I have absolutely no respect for national icons. I just think people should be held up as heores for performing heroic acts. I do not consider climbing a mountain as something that qualifies. I think that heroism is achieved when one is forced into a situation that he has no control over and acts in a way that is to the benefit of others and yet possibly to the detriment of himself...i.e. he behaves selflessly. That's just me. That's just what I think.
Laterz

Sunday 13th January
Okay, I am confused. First of all, it seems that Iran is not "off" the table as far as George Bush is concerned.
Second of all, Ron Paul is not going to pursue a recount in New Hampshire. I do not know how this is going to go down with his supporters, but I am most certainly mystified by this whole thing.
Laterz

Monday 14th January
I got sunburned today because my pool sprung a leak and I had to fix it. I drained all the water out,there was so much I found myself looking around for an ark and starting to seriously consider gathering two of each species closest to me...to pop upon soon to be discovered ark...which would have been the sum total of two Newfoundlands (both female) two rabbits (both boys) one guinea pig (that I figured I could pair up with a cat because I have a few to spare) two cats and two birds.
Which leads me to my question, are you one who reads instructions before putting something together or repairing something? I am not. Typically, someone who never reads instructions, never reads instructions (hey now wasn't THAT a surprise), but if a person who typically never reads instructions suddenly starts...as a last resort...they never read them properly anyway. People who usually never read instructions and who perform this terrible task (reading instructions) as their last resort, tend to start a few lines down and read them in a kind of scanning mode taking in only strange or new words...and inevitably missing all the important key phrases such as "unplug from mains" or "keep out of reach of incompetent idiots"...oops I meant "children".
You see, people who don't read instructions are typically one of two things: either too impatient, or too smart. Sadly, or pathetically (I haven't made my mind up yet on which one of those is appropriate) I fall into the the first category because, as you will see from reading further down, "smart" is a word that cannot possibly be applied to me today.
Anyway, so I got this pool patch repair kit and opened it (once all the water was drained out of the pool...every single drop) and decided to read the instructions, as my last resort, before I attempted the repair. The instructions instructed me to wear goggles and a snorkle while repairing the leak, which I thought was very odd. I thought, seeing as how the first lot of instructions were in French and the second were in what appeared to be hyroglyphics(sp) (did Egyptians have vynal pools? I did not think so, but I have been known to be wrong on occasion) that perhaps the whole instruction thingy had gotten lost in translation and perhaps they had not meant to tell me to wear a snorkle and goggles while fixing my pool. Then I stood there thinking to myself, "Well, that must be some kind of glue if the fumes can get to your eyes and make the air all gluggy when your pool is out in the open fresh air." Then I thought to myself, "I can understand the googles, but a snorkle?" Then I found myself thinking, "What will the neighbours think when they see me out there patching my pool wearing snorkle and googles? Why don't I just add a pair of flippers and water wings just to make it look completely and utterly strange?"
All of those strange thoughts flew through my head until I scanned back a couple of lines (because I was so totally confused by then that I could hardly think straight because even my last resort, reading the instructions, wasn't panning out too well) and read the words, "For Underwater Repairs".
I was so bleeped off...I drained all the water out for nothing! Ha ha ha.
Anyway but the pool is fixed now, which is just as well because it is so hot here and I got so sunburned fixing the pool (that I drained unecessarily). Anyway, so then I had to monitor it filling again and got even more sunburned...and then just got inside (it is 10.02) well, actually, now it is 10.37.
So, the moral of the story is that, unless you are exceptionally smart, like rocket scientist smart, or understand, perfectly, hyroglyphics, always read the instructions from the very first line until the very last and you will never go wrong.
Laterz

Tuesday 15th January
I cannot believe the audacity of the Neo-con propoganda machine, and yet I am, at the same time, unsurprised. Their latest scare tactic is to assert that therre is now a white, 15'000 strong Al Queda in England. They are saying that the white ranks come from those who have dfected to the Muslim religion and others have been recruited while in jail. Further to this, they are saying that now it is virtually impossible to detect who is a threat and who is not.
See, before, all you had to do to be identified as a viable threat is to be of Middle Eastern descent, be wearing a turban or the more obvious, carrying a bazooka through customs.
This turn of events, on the part of the Neo-cons should be laughable, but actually it is not. It is a deadly turn of events.
Why?
Well with the, albeit bogus, information that there is now an Al Queda white army out to kill us all, the Neo-cons have even more reason to further boarder controls and enforce more stringent means of identifying people, and let's face it, that is what it has been about since 9/11 and Britain's 7/7.
They have been pushin g for everyone to be "chipped" for quite some time now and this will most certainly further that cause. There is nothing like a threat that you can't readily identify to make people scared. When people are scared they are more apt to being compliant with those who deem themselves their "protectors". If the Government espouses the idea that it is your patriotic duty to be able to be readily identified so that everyone can remain safe, then people, in their heightened state of fear, will do so. And heaven forbid, if you refuse the chip, you are probably a part of the new white Al Queda, so it will sort of become one of those "damned if you do and damned if you don't" scenarios.
For further info and proof that this is not something that I have pulled out from a hole in my head, go to this link, read the article and watch the video. That's the very strange thing about life, fiction must make sense, yet reality is not confined by those rules. Here's that link.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/011408_new_alqaeda.htm

Laterz

Thursday 17th January
Missed Wednesday. I never got around to coming in here and writing anything, not that much went on yesterday anyway.
But this morning I happened to see a video of Tom Cruise speaking of the virtues of Scientology and being a Scientologist. Let me be clear here, I am not a Tom Cruise fan. I have never been a Tom Cruise fan. When I discover that he is in a movie, more often than not, I will not purchase it. That is how much I am not a fan of Tom Cruise. It always makes me laugh if I happen to catch reruns of Tom Cruise on the Oprah show (not that I watch her either, I don't. I am not a fan of hers either. In fact I am not much of a fan of television period. I will watch docos and sometimes the news and my fave program "Outrageous Fortune", but that's it.) But as I was saying, if I happen to catch the rerun of Oprah where Tom Cruise is the guest, I squirm when I hear all those stupid women screaming and carrying on when they see him come on stage. What the heck is that all about all ready? If I were to find myself at a taping of Oprah (I am more likely to walk on the moon) and Tom Cruise was the secret guest, I would leave! That is how much of a fan of his I am not.
Anyway, I saw this video this morning of him talking about how wonderful Scientology is. He was going on and on about how he now knows "it" and how he has to just get out there and do "it" and how we should all study Scientology so that we can all get out there and do "it" and if we don't know "it" then we best get out of the way so that the great Scientologists can attend to "it" cos they get "it".
Funny thing is, that Tom never defined what "it" is. I wondered if "it" is something you are only introduced to once you have been in the church long enough to be introduced to "it".
During this interview he spoke of how if a Scientologist drives past an accident then that person is the only one who knows exactly what to do. Which made me wonder why they are not all ambulance drivers: being that they are all so familiar with the power to fix everything, they could simply heal them all at the scene and drive them home after. He also said that Scientologists have the knowledge and ability to make all races be in harmony with each other, which caused me to wonder why, if they are all so all seeing and powerful, they don't all relocate to Iraq and sell crazy there? Oh that's right, Iraq is all stocked up.
Tom also espoused the idea that Scientologists hold the key to the answers to all of mankind's ails, so that also caused me to wonder why there is still world hunger, since they are so powerful and all. He basically spent all 7/8 minutes drivelling on about the great "it" which, in Sarah terms, translates to, "how to say absolutely nothing without taking a breath for eight minutes and consequently making yourself look like a total twat!"
He spoke of Scientologists being able to create an alternate reality to the one everyone else is faced with, well, so can Acid freaks. He spoke of having his mind somewhat expanded and his sense kind of heightened because he understood "it" (yeah that again) and I have to say here that that kind of mind expansion/opening is also a regular feature of LSD use. That kind of self-expression on the part of Tom leaves me little recourse but to advise everyone to never wear an alligator T-shirt around a Scientologist freak, because the damn thing will eat 'em.
No, I am not a Tom Cruise fan. I never have been and I was never going to be. But now, at the end of the day, I also consider him to be a blithering idiot who extols the virtues of a religion that is based upon aliens burying themselves beneath the earth millions of years ago. If you don't believe me, read up on what Scientologists believe. Their belief system makes tin foil hat wearing UFO abductees seem sane and believable.
Laterz

Wednesday 16th January
Piczo is having some absurdly bad technical difficulties and, as a result, all my pics are floating around in cyber space somewhere. They assure me that the problem will be fixed, but one cannot help but wonder just how long that might take. I have never seen a problem in this place of quite this magnitude.
Monty arrived in for dinner tonight and he doesn't look the best. I don;t know if he is just over heating or whether something has happened to him. There do not appear to be any marks or injuries to the outside of his body. I hope he is going to be okay.

Thursday 17th January
This morning Monty could hardly even breathe and so I raced him to the vets. They said that he had some kind of serious chest trauma and that the kindest thing for us to do would be to put him to sleep. I spoke to Jonty about it and asked him if he wanted to go with Monty while it was done, seeing as how Monty is his cat. He became ver yscared and said no. I found out later that he thought that I meant, did Jonty want to be put to sleep with Monty. Poor kid!
I was horrified that Jonty thought that I had asked him that and it took a little explaining to get him to understand exactly what I meant. So we brought Monty home and Jonty wanted to spend time alone with him, which I thought was healthy and so I left him to it. Jonty has special needs and does not understand things as readily as the average person does. Anyway, I wanted to bury Monty and he would not allow it, so I had to do some fast thinking. Like all good resourceful mothers (who just plain and simple run out of all rational options) I opted for the irrational, helped by along by a little manipulation, on my part. I told Jonty that what Mont ywould want for him to do would be to be a loving and caring boy for another kitten, just as he had been for Monty. I told him that all that was left in the box was the vehilce that Monty used for this life, that the real Monty was now up in heaven with the other cats we have lost, Elmo, Chompski, Malfoy and Oggy. I told him that he was probably being introduced to Intaos (our Newfie that died about four years ago) as we were speaking. It is not a lie, at least I do not believe it is. We are led to believe that animals are in heaven too, and what kind of God would allow a human to love an animal just to lose it and never see it again? Maybe we won't see our animals again, but I do not think that that is the case. Anyway, what else can you say to a child like Jonty?
So, I took him into town and he agreed to choosing another kitten and he chose a black fluffy hair ball he has named Gizmo. Once he had Gizmo, he was a little more prepared to let go of Monty, and yes, I manipulated him by telling him every step of the way that he was doing the right thing and that it was what Monty would have wanted for him. Admittedly, I had to make some concessions. I had to allow Monty to be buried with a celphone so that if he wakes up, he can text or call us to let us know to come and get him. It did me no good to talk Jonty out of this, so I simply let it go. Secondly, I had to fork out for new cuddly toys so that Monty had something to play with, just in case he wakes up. Thirdly, I had to let Jonty go out and put chocolate biscuits on the grave, just in case Monty would like some.
I never thought it could be so difficult to watch a child enduring the loss of a beloved pet. My other kids have lost pets, but they have coped reasonably well, but Jonty, he has made me see the whole entire process with different eyes, as he has done in other facets of life. One things for certain, I have never cried so much watching a child struggling to cope and dealing with my own grief at the same time. I always take it very hard when one of our pets die, but this has been almost the hardest one.
Laterz

Friday 18th January
Piczo is still down, which is bizarre.

Saturday 19th January
Gizmo is very cute, but Gizmo is almost like a little human baby. I have to rock him in my hands to get him to go to sleep and then I have to carefully lay him down in his little bed so that I do not wake him again. Jonty loves to watch this process and yet has little patience for it himself. He adores his baby cat though and he goes to all kinds of lengths to ensure that Gizmo is happy and has everything that he needs and wants. The kitten is going to grow up to be a brat! I just know it!\
Jonty still makes his daily visits to go and sit with Monty and, to be truthfully honest, I am just as bad. I find myself sitting on the park bench staring at his grave and bawling my eyes out too. I know how he looks inside his little casket, holding his yellow teddy between his paws and to look at him, it seemed as though he were merely sleeping.
The last thing I said to Monty was that everything was going to be allright. I know that it is dumb, but it wasn't allright and I have this eerie sense of guilt.
Laterz

Sunday 19th January
Piczo is still having tech probs and I cannot imagine what it must be, except that it must be big. Fortunately script is still working in here and I can at least do my blogs.
Gizmo has made friends with Forest, Moo Moo and Sage. I think that they have accepted him so quickly because he is kind of like Monty. He is not exactly like him; clearly he is smaller and way more black, but his fur is similar, so they let him play with them and cuddle with them.
Matisse has been wandering around looking for Monty, he was like her child. She used to feed him when he was small, even though she had no milk and was not his mother. When she did have Forest, Moo Moo and Sage, she used to lay down to feed them and he would feed with them. She also used to go outside and he would get in the basket with the babies and stay with them until she got back. He used to bath them too. Monty was the only cat that she would let near her babies. If any of the other cats tried, Matisse would attempt to rip their whiskers out!
Monty was afraid of panda bear toys. Any other stuffed toy and he was fine, but bring a panda bear toy out, no matter the size, and he would run away and hide, scared out of his mind. I have pandas in my room and I would have to hide them all. He would walk in looking around suspiciously and so long as no panda was visible, he'd get onto the bed.
Monty also used to suck on our ears. Yes, he'd latch onto our earlobes and suck away as though he were feeding...it was very weird, but kind of cute. We adored him very much and we all miss him a lot.
Laterz

Wednesday 23rd January
Piczo images are still down and they are still promising to fix the problem, but it has been a week now. To be absolutely truthful, I am about ready to leave Piczo in much the same way as a rat leaves a sinking ship. Cowardly, I know, but I just about can't stand coming in here and seeing all my hard work, of nearly three years, completely munted. I will give it another week but if the problem isn't solved by then, I will leave this site and find a new one. I will transfer everything over to the new one and provide the link etc.
Read two really disturbing things in the news today.
First of all, when I was about ten years old I bought a copy of a Gary Glitter record at a Paddy's Market in the small rural town (population at the time 200) called TeHoro. When I saw the record, in 1977, the cover looked pretty "cool" to me at the time. The record cover was grey and Gary was on the front wearing a real tight fitting sparkly blue suit, high heels and what looked to be a big sparkly blue kind of ring on his left hand. I listened to the record and I kind of liked the music. Hearing songs such as I'm the Leader of the Gang, Babe Please Don't Go etc, I was temporarily hooked. This love affair with his music lasted about six months and yet never extended to the man himself. I remember being at a Youth Group camp at WYWAM in Waikanae one weekend. My friends Melanie and Carolyn (who was only ever my friend so as her best friend Shirly wasn't around, which was only ever at events such as this) attended that camp and they had this fun kind of jury thing that held each of us up on charges. Some were charged with not doing the dishes properly and others with keeping their room messy. Melanie, Carolyn and I were charged with talking all night. The jury found us guilty and we were sentenced to a rather odd form of reparation to our peers. We were sentenced to having eyes, a nose and a mouth drawn on our stomachs and made to dance with our shirts raised (so everyone could see the drawing) to the sound of Gary Glitter. I believe the song was Babe Please Don't Go.
Now, back in 1977 there was no issue with Gary Glitter, but these days, the idea of three ten year old girls dancing almost topless to one of his songs, in light of Gary's more recent contributions to mankind, is almost an irony...it is also very creepy! If someone had said, back in 1977, that thirty years later Gary would be some washed up pedophile languishing in a Vietnam jail, I think almost everyone would have laughed! But truth is stranger than fiction and there he is in a Vietnamese jail having just suffered a heart attack. Why is he in there? Molestation/rape of two ten year old girls. Makes you think, don't it?
The second piece of interesting and yet disturbing news came in the form of this sentence that I read in an article in the New Zealand Herald..."The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction." Think about that for a few seconds and maybe read it back to yourself a couple of times.
That sentence came from an article titled, "Nuclear Dawn for the West". and is one of the most idiotic example of "double-speak" that I have had the misfortune to read for a while. The article was written by five of the West's most senior military officers and strategists. They identified a number of key threats to the West's values and way of life - including international terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism.
Um, okay, I might be being a little fuzzy here, but aren't nuclear bombs weapons of mass destruction? Isn't a nuclear holocaust about as weapons of mass destruction as you can get? Isn't this, nuclear bombs, the very excuse that George Bush and Co are using to barage the world with the idea of war with Iran?
They are back to the old ideas that ran wild in the Cold War, "If we have them, then our enemies will not dare to strike at us because they know that we will strike back". Which is crazy because that kind of rationale feeds right into the next piece of insanity, the "Use 'em or lose 'em" idea. In other words, if you think/suspect that your enemy has launched theirs at you, then you have a set amount of time to strike back. That leaves little time to verify that the launch is not a computer malfunction or a red herring spewed out by a virus infected computer, or worse still, a computer that has been compromised by outside forces such as hackers or what have you.
And the last piece of idiocy in this whole new saga? THEY ALREADY HAVE NUCLEAR BOMBS in most Western countries, so that makes almost the entire idea a moot point! Except for one tiny little detail...the powers that be are running out of scare tactics. You see, if a human is exposed to the same kind of theoretical threat that never materialises, i.e. terrorist bombs actually going off in America, planes exploding in the sky etc, then people eventually become numbed, nonchalant and even complacent. When a threat never materialises into action, then people begin to see it for what it is and are no longer afraid. When people are not afraid, they think more rationally and with more perspective and less bias. (I remember, from late childhood and as a teenager, having very vivid dreams of worldwide nuclear destruction...the torment of having no place to run and nowhere to hide. Worldwide nuclear destruction was a common feature of teenage conversation in my circles in the 1980s. I remember being way out at the back of a farm in an old camping hut in the middle of nowhere with my boyfriend one afternoon in the late summer of 1982. Our conversation, as we listened to the native birds and the wind rustling the trees, was all about the time "it" nearly happened. I think it was an urban, or in our case, rural myth or legend. Some said it almost happened in the 60s, other myths and legends had it almost happening in the early 70s. Whatever the accurate story, the myth/legend about when nuclear war almost happened kept us in a fear state for almost all of our late childhood and teenage years in pretty much the same way as the local rural myth about mad old Jim had us setting out to go camping with fear and trembling.) But, as we became adults and became a little more aware of political tactics and personal fears real or imagined and the conditioning of a human as a result, the threat lost its oomph and suddenly it wasn't spoken about by teenager or adult, not on the news either, except for when the Wall came down.)
When people are not frightened they begin to be able to evaluate their fears of threats made and the threats lose their impact and thus the people are less controllable than what they were in their fear state. Examples? Cold war nuclear threat. Ozone layer depletion. Icehouse effect. Global Warming. Oil Crisis. Terrorists crashing planes into buildings. Finanacial crisis.
So, the powers that be must come up with something new, something more terrible than the previous terrible threats. And what a way to do it? By making people fear total destruction at the hands of some Joe-Terrorist who supposedly has access to illicit nuclear bombs...never mind that you need the IQ of almost a rocket scientist in order to be able to detonate one of them suckers because Nuclear bombs don't just go off. It might be a mere matter of pushing a button to launch them, but it is a whole different game when it comes to making them actually explode.
How do you think we have come this far with nuclear weapons for so long without completely erasing human life from this solar system? The milk of human kindness and empathy for their fellow man?
I think not.
Laterz
Ps Mad Old Jim was supposedly this man who accidentally shot himself, thus ending his life, while cleaning his rifle way back in the 1800s (no exact date has ever been given) and it is said that Mad Old Jim haunts Mt Bruce and the surrounding area. It is said that when teens go camping around Mt Bruce, Kiriwhakapapa Road and surrounding area, Mad Old Jim happens upon them and flaunts his half blown away face at them by firelight because he does not like those who still live. It was also suspected that if Mad Old Jim were to get his hands on you that you would never be seen again. As far as I am aware, Mr Bruce and the surrounding area never had any teen who ventured out camping never return. But it was a neat spooky story told during many a dark night out rabbit hunting or star gazing and it was enough to hurry your steps back to the sporadic lights shining across that rural community. That was our local rural myth in that area. That was Mad Old Jim.