And While We're At It, What's With This Shameful Negligence On the Part of (Doubtless Pope Frances-Adoring) Media - Here in God's Own, Anyhow - To (If Only Occasionally, I'll Concede) OPENLY NAME & SHAME the Roman Catholic Church And/Or Papacy/Vatican Over THIS (& Similar 'Stuff' in Poland), In View of the (Seemingly) Countless Instances of the Like That Have Been Increasingly Brought to Light (and World Attention) And Extensively Documented in All Their Gory Detail Over Recent Decades?

Hey, it couldn't be some sort of soft spot for the (admittedly eloquent words of) the present occupant of the papal see, by any chance? 

Just speculating, folks...

So What Does - CAN - Canada's Catholic Prime Minister POSSIBLY MEAN When He Just the Other Day Implored ALL His Fellow Canadians to "Take Responsibility" For the Shameful 'Stuff' Recently Exposed As Having Occurred at Canada's Roman Catholic Church Boarding Colleges for Indigenous People Over the Past Century Or So?

Or does he somehow fail to understand - or even deliberately pretend to not do so - that it's the perpetrator of ill that is entirely response-able  for taking response-ability...? *Or damn well oughta be!

Yes, I for one absolutely refuse to buy into the commonly peddled myth these days that we're all somehow responsible for the sins of our fathers...and mothers (for that matter)...

Folks, it simply ain't so.

Fullstop. End of story.

*Though namby-pamby judges seek to deflect such onto wider society and make excuse after excuse for what is simply bad behaviour, and used to be simply taken for such.

Hey, FOR ONCE Good On the UNITED NATIONS' 'Independent Human Rights Experts': For Calling Out & Calling Time Upon the Vatican Vis-a-Vis Its "Active Stalling"/"Active Thwarting"/"Foot-Dragging"/"Cover-Up" & "DELAY-DELAY-DELAY" In Regards to Its UTTER INACTION in Dealing To/Stopping the Sexual Exploitation of Minors in its Midst (and the Paying Compensation Thereto): As I've Said (Reworking John Tamihere's Inimitable Words) In Regards to Any Number of Things Over the Years: A Little Less Hui and a Whole Lot More Do-ey": LIKE YESTERDAY...Already!

And Apparently 'the Donald' Does As Well, Evidently Not Having the Staying Power/Fortitude To Endure A Month (29-Day Spell, To Be Precise) of Low-Hits Upon His Newfangled Blogsite...

So, incredible as it might well seem - to yours truly, anyhow - I've herein 'bested' the great one by a magnitude of a hundred (times), having now blogged for well over 2,900 days (upon this, my other regular blogsite davidedwinisms, and my six newbie blogsites)... 

Hey, Mr Trump, ya can't win 'em all...

Nick Smith, A Real Trooper, Calls It A Day...

Despite much negative press by Radio Stalingrad and the like, and endless, unsparing ridicule and belittling by Smith's parliamentary 'colleagues' in the NZ Labour and Green parties...

I'd contend, on the contrary, that Dr Smith has left an enviable record of actual (legislative) achievement in addition to being an unforgettable presence and feisty, energetic, intelligent and cogent, coherent debater in the House...

...moreover one with a sensitive and percipient conscience and acuity of insight upon many a piece of legislation - particularly those involving conscience votes - especially whilst in Opposition anyway...

To Be Continued (following some much-needed shuteye)...

Personally I applaud his willingness to stand alone as it were and champion unpopular social causes such as the rights of the unborn child and of the vulnerable aged...

...and for ever being a passionate advocate of whichever causes he was happening to promote or argue against at any particular time...-sure, the 'job description', you could say, of any and every member of Parliament per se, only that he - sadly amongst too few - was not only adept at such, but seemed to always wear his heart upon his sleeve and throw the entirety thereof into it whenever this punter chanced to see him debating...

Also for making a determined stand upon such (conveniently media-ignored) issues as the (then NZ First-supported coalition Government's) 'Electoral Integrity Amendment Act' (i.e. the gerrymandered rorting of the electoral scrum law)...

However this one-time member of National's 1990s' 'Brat Pack' (comprising Bill English, Tony Ryall, Roger Sowry and himself) was resoundingly defeated at the polls last time round - amidst a number of major electoral upsets as the newly-minted Jacinda Ardern-led Labour majority Government wiped out National in some of its safest seats nationwide (including in such true-blue diehard National electorates as Rangitata, scene of the recent devastating, one-in-a-hundred-year flooding, and formerly arguably its safest seat anywhere!)...

...as was fellow long-serving Ilam M.P. and Key Government Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee (also, like Smith, a one-time/*sometime deputy leader of his party)...

...and accordingly he wrongly in my view (and that of several/most commentators) deemed it right/okay to stay on after Election 2020 - if only as a list M.P. - thus tending as so many previously to give list MPs a bad name with the general populace...

...since the unambiguous and decisive verdict of the people in his/their own once fortress-safe electorate/s had been to give 'im/'em the clear and obvious heave-ho...

But though he thus misjudged the precise timing of when to go - again, like Mr Brownlee - 'for the **bestist of reasons: i.e. to keep some longterm institutional knowledge and experience amongst a class of many newfangled Opposition backbenchers - he is now stepping down before Election 2023; yes, to fend off in advance the obvious mini-scandal of some (doubtless) minor altercation with a staffer: a ***big deal to today's wet behind the ears woke-era junkie journalists'...

he is doing so ****before someone else - to wit, present Speaker Trevor Mallard - who has himself long passed his own use-by date, for the reason that he owes it to the nation - especially the former parliamentary staffer he so unfairly maligned as a rapist - to follow suit: ipso pronto, as in yesterday (if not lunch time!) 

*Brownlee serving as such (for reasonable periods, at least latterly) at least twice, whilst Smith did so under then newly-selected leader Don Brash for the briefest of times.

**Yes, my own edwinism, let's just say...

***I'd hate to think of what they'd make of Rob Muldoon's biffing Chris Laidlaw or serving it to someone else as he skedaddled into his limo post-a Dunedin election rally in the day!

****But rumour has it that Mallard will conveniently be shuffled off the scene pre-Election 2023, or at least announce his decision to retire then (as both Labour list M.P. and consequently speaker as well), thus giving way/place to one of the various present assistant speakers who are generally performing more than adequately but need a little more experience in the meantime...

'Breaking News': Biden Administration Now Also Keen To Investigate the Very Real Possibility That Covid-19 Originated in a Chinese Lab...I.e. The Origins of the Globe-Devastating Coronavirus Were Very likely Every Bit as Suspect as First Suspected...And, MOREOVER, I - Among Doubtless Numerous Others - Was Quite Possibly RIGHT ALL ALONG...