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Clueless in Christchurch

Same old, same old.

The city council wants to halt the demolition of the Cathedral and to continue to go around and around in circles over its future.

They care about the heritage of the building - with attached ye old gift shoppe? But do they care about Anglican heritage?

Not the stones but the faith - I wonder.

Cathedrals can be rebuilt, it takes the faithful to do it.

It has been done before and may well be done again.

But the motivation and money has to come from the people who worship therin.

Chatterers and posturers can chatter and posture from now to eternity but without the energy and will of the Faithful nothing will happen.

And if by happenstance the money is raised  from  the ratepayers of Christchurch and the taxpayers of New Zealand  by political compulsion  all that will arise is a pile of stones. 

Which might look pretty but would be hollow in the extreme.

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Baba Yaga on patrol

This is Baba Yaga.

She is responsible for rodent control around here.

And she is very good at it - which is why you wont read posts such as this on this site. 

Every three hours or so day and night, rain or shine Baba Yaga patrols her territory. Makes sure everything is in order.

And woe betide any invader - particularly those of the rodent or feathered varieties.

Only once have I seen her flummoxed.

One evening great cat curses were heard coming from outside the kitchen door.

She had caught a hedgehog at her food bowl. The hedgehog had, as hedgehogs do coiled itself into a prickly ball and all Baba Yaga could do was issue forth a stream of base cat profanities.

But Baba Yaga's night time patrols maybe under threat - a call has gone out from the Waikato SPCA for a night time curfew to be imposed upon cats along with micro chipping. An authoritarian (non)solution to the problem of stray cats breeding. 

And if such a silly thing is adopted in the Waikato you can be sure the idea will spread. Just like the microchipping of dogs nonsense. Just how requireing the microchipping of an old woman's pekenese stops an unregistered  rotweiler biting a child I have never understood. 

But back to cats, as anybody acquainted with them will know keeping them inside when they don't want to be kept inside is nigh on impossible. 

They are creatures with minds of their own, fiercely independent and with steel willed self determination.

You can count on it that they will not subserviently bow down to any city council bylaw - no matter how draconian the penalty.

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Young woman?

The lead story on the New Zealand Herald's site: Underwriter's deadly meth overdose.

A "young" woman found dead in her home after a methamphetamine overdose.

"The inquiries also established that Ms McMillan appeared to be a happy, healthy, young woman who was well admired and respected,'' the findings said.

This "young woman" was in fact 39 years old.

Thoughout the course of human history a large number of women who had had children were grandmothers by her age, including one of mine who would have been had she lived that long.

Even hundred years ago this young woman would have been old.

And yet on reading the story, despite having a successful career in the insurance industry, this woman had yet to embark on adult life - she was still an adolescent to all intents and purposes.

Now here is  the rub for us all - delayed adolencense and the failure to raise children to follow on from us as a result is robbing us all of our future.

What is happening in Europe right now - the collapse of the Greek economy, with other nations not far behind, is not the result of profligate Government spending as we are being told.

Greek public spending per capita is much lower than that of many nations, including that of the United States.

No - it is the result of a declining and aging population, something that is happening across the Western World and which has been swept under the carpet in richer nations by immigration.

Time runs out for us all and it is running out for our civilization because the last two generations have failed to grow up and take on adult responsibilities and raise families.

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The future of Europe is not in London, Paris, Brussels or Rome .....

But in Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Kishinev (Chisinau), Athens, and Bucharest according to the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin.

Fr Chaplin is hardly a household name in English speaking countries though from time to time he does make the pages of the Guardian and the news desk of the BBC when he says something that outrages the editors of those venerable institutions liberal sensitivities - which he does from time to time.

What he said in a speech yesterday was that the West has abandoned and betrayed  its Christian Heritage and it is up to the East to restore all.

"We do not need to be dependent and led by the world dialogue of civilizations, we need to reunite our intellect and will, our tradition and innovation, our faith and life, the so-called spiritual and worldly. It is our duty - in ten years to change the world, and we can do it, "

Them's fighting words, a direct confrontation with Western Secularism.

Funny thing is many years ago an old priest told me it was prophecied that Holy Russia would be called upon to restore Christianity to Europe. 

I smiled to humour him - Russia at the time was Atheistic Communist and it was the West that was Christian.

Now it has totally flipped the other way. In Russia they build Churches while in the West old churches  are converted to other uses including  bordellos and mosques.

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Boffins spewing malodorous methane

The great study industry continues on its merry way, the main consumers of which are politicians, lobby groups and bureacrats.

And the great funders of which are the humble taxpayer.

Speaking of studies did you see the Pentagon commissioned a study of studies. 

And the Government Accounting Office issued a Study of the Pentagon's "Study of Studies" and found it "lacking".

To the matter at hand, today's study is one that has concluded "cutting back on meat and dairy produce in favour of vegetables could significantly affect greenhouse gases linked to climate change".

 Many years ago now I became trapped in an elevator. One of my companions in my involuntary confinement was a nervous vegetarian with very active viscera.

And extremely  smelly GHG's were being emitted.

And this is what the boffins behind this particular study have failed to take into account - if we ditch T-Bones and milk for kidney beans and soy, our personal emissions of GHGs will surely rise.

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What's with this?

Man's military obsession leads to weapons charges

Reading this story you find that this fellow has not actually done anything wrong that I can see.

He holds a current firearms license - he is interested in weapons, other people collect stamps.

On this occaision he was picked up in what appears to have been a random search of his car with a sheath knife, handcuffs and a baton in his car.

"He's one of those that if you'd stop and speak to him in the street you wouldn't think anything was amiss and only because we're doing things differently, we're finding people who otherwise wouldn't have come to police attention," Fleming said.

"But there are people out there who are, potentially, a worry to the community." 

A worry to the community?

He does not appear to have committed any crime?