I have to apologize to you all because it’s been so long since I’ve put anything on the website. For those who are on Facebook, there is a Heather’s Homilies Facebook page. On a reasonably regular basis I post news stories there along with a short commentary of my own. I know it’s not much, but at least it lets you know I still exist.
I hope I can rely on you all to continue to be patient with me. After the last year, I’m aware that your patience must be wearing rather thin. The good news is that my body is finally back to where it was before my old chair broke down. This new one I spend most of my days (and half my nights) in is fantastic, and I still can’t believe that one of you was so kind as to pay for it for me. It literally changed my life.
I have been writing, but I’ve also been worrying a lot. I won’t bore you with the details, or the emotional effects. Suffice to say it’s making it very difficult to finish anything. The posts on the go are about abortion (two) and Iran.
Abortion
Most of you are in the US. If you’re elsewhere, you’re unlikely to be aware of the details of NZ politics. We’re just too small to make the news unless there’s a major natural disaster or a mass murder. Thank goodness for all the New Zealand sportspeople and teams that lead the world, or most people would never have heard of us outside the Christchurch terrorist attack.
Anyway, there are three big political debates going on here at the moment. One is about euthanasia. Legislation known as the End of Life Choices Bill is currently working its way through the political process. A second is about legalizing marijuana. And the third relates to abortion.
Abortion is still illegal in New Zealand, including when the pregnancy it the result of rape. There are circumstances where an abortion is legal, and one is when the pregnancy would seriously endanger the mental health of the mother. That criteria is interpreted very broadly by most doctors. As a result, most women have no problem getting a safe abortion at no charge in a public hospital. Anti-choice campaigners complain that the vast majority of abortions in New Zealand are carried out under the mental health of the mother criteria.
Finally, we have a government who is looking at taking abortion out of the Crimes Act. That means though that the anti-choice campaigners are coming out of the woodwork and spreading their lies in an attempt to keep abortion illegal here. They are using the same tactics as their fellows around the world, including spreading lies about late-term abortions.
So that’s the background of one abortion post.
The second abortion post is, of course, about the attempts of conservative Christians and their GOP lackeys to make abortion illegal again in the US.
Iran
This is obvious really. The situation in the Middle East, always simmering, is being brought to a boil the hawks in the Trump administration, led by National Security Advisor, John Bolton. There are other international players, such as Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman (aka MbS), who are not helping the situation.
It’s extremely worrying, not least because of Trump’s incompetence, which is even greater when it comes to foreign affairs. However, he’s also the best hope because I believe he genuinely doesn’t want a war. The problem is his lack of understanding might have effects he doesn’t foresee.
Tweets
To make up for not doing a proper post, here are a few tweets for your enjoyment. I haven’t separated them out into categories as usual as there aren’t enough. It’s just a mishmash.
why am I still thirsty pic.twitter.com/3QUiFw5MW3
— Awwwww (@AwwwwCats) May 25, 2019
Majestic af. pic.twitter.com/VtqYO4ZYlF
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) May 26, 2019
I don’t quite understand, but it’s cool anyway.
Constructive interference occurs whenever waves come together so that they are in phase with each other https://t.co/JN4XJZckYy pic.twitter.com/IMgzgz3eL2
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 26, 2019
What a cool cat!
My cat likes to sit a little strangely pic.twitter.com/AHPnaxLUb8
— Awwwww (@AwwwwCats) May 26, 2019
I love these!
Snails are the cutest, most mesmerizing little eaters ever ???????? pic.twitter.com/zUHI65rl3f
— The Dodo (@dodo) May 26, 2019
So cute.
Mama cat bringing her kittens to her human’s bed as a sign of trust pic.twitter.com/Zj1sFSquJ3
— Awwwww (@AwwwwCats) May 26, 2019
Wow!
The reflexes of an antelope are crucial for its survival: here a crocodile attack si shown in slow motion https://t.co/szbHhaJvaT pic.twitter.com/rge7btmrSh
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 26, 2019
No. Not after all the stories of such rides failing.
Would you ride this
by joancallamezo/Imgur pic.twitter.com/Ak76rvKoxu— Space Explorer Mike (@MichaelGalanin) May 26, 2019
I’m probably supposed to think this is gross, but I think it’s fascinating.
The removal of a botfly larvae from a woman’s arm! pic.twitter.com/GjNcnE9BDw
— Medical Shots (@TheMedicalShots) May 26, 2019
I did not know they looked like this.
Ever seen a Raven’s ear?
(gif by tothenthpower) pic.twitter.com/wyJCVjaKTu— 41 Strange (@41Strange) May 27, 2019
If you can’t see the very bottom of Trump’s trousers, click on the photo.
This photo appeared in a few articles on the Arlington visit. It is not photoshopped.
— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) May 26, 2019
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Heather, it’s good to know that you’re improving and that your new chair is such a boon. What a gift! Male or female, the person who got you the chair is a true Good Samaritan.
I hope you’re back at it soon, I, for one, find your political posts essential reading (even if I don’t always comment) but your health is paramount
Since I’m not on Facebook, it’s a pain to read your posts there, but not impossible (kind of like peeking through the blinds) and it’s worth checking out despite the fact that Facebook makes it difficult to access without an account, because you have interesting and thought provoking Facebook posts.
I Googled Trump’s peculiar pants and learn that this isn’t the first time he’s worn trousers like that. It has been speculated that the style may be influenced by Kim Jong Un’s trouser style. Time Magazine’s twitter has info on that but I’m not going to post the link less it screws up whatever it screws up on your website. Those interested can do a Google search It’s a tantalizing hypothesis.. And that tie is like a long blue tongue; but isn’t that type of tie a bit of a phallic symbol? If so, he’s signaling that he has a long one. I bet not.
The gray cat dry lapping the water is hilarious. “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
I see that quite a few of your posts are sourced at Raw Story. RS recently announced that they’ll be “partnering” with David Cay Johnston, which is excellent because he has his trigger finger on Trump’s financial pulse.
Thanks Jenny. I understand why you wouldn’t want to join Facebook. I only joined because of the website and needing to be able to put my posts there. Otherwise, I never would have.
Even though the Washington Post is the only newspaper I still subscribe to (I cut all the others for financial reasons), I do get notifications from Raw Story. Their political articles are very click-baity to me, I must admit. They’re rarely the source though. More often I’m already writing about something and they put out a related notification. I notive that in the afternoons (NZ time) when I’m watching the CNN evening shows, things that are on CNN are repeated very quickly on Raw Story, including video from the show. They do the same with MSNBC, though I can’t get that in NZ. I did see that Johnston will be partnering with them. He’s on CNN quite a lot, and it will be interesting to see what they do together, especially with the upcoming elections.
not “less” but “lest”. And I note that we can now “reply” properly.
Jenny, I share your dislike of Facebook, and closed my account some time ago. Thanks to the link provided by Heather, I can now follow her on Facebook, albeit with an annoying reminder to sign up.
Heather, your posts are always worth the wait, but no pressure, just do what you can. As a lover of all things from the Land of the Long White Cloud, I’m really interested to read about your local politics, and the three subjects you mention are all of great interest to me. I look forward to reading more about them.
Dear Heather. I am glad that you are feeling better, I do miss your posts but understand that it is difficult when one is not feeling well.
I am not in the USA and have a great affection for New Zealand having had the great fortune to have visited the South Island many years ago. I am always interested in what happens in your part of the planet. Of no great surprise is that a number of my friends from my RAF service “retired” to NZ. This of course is in no way linked to service visits!
I do not “do” facebook either, I refuse to be a product of it and have a personal somewhat inexplicable dislike for Mr Zuckerberg, not that we have ever been introduced.
Notwithstanding I do visit your site and like your style in commenting, informative and succinct.
Take care Heather.
Best regards from Nova Scotia.
Robert Ladley.
Thanks so much Robert. I think NZ and Canada have a lot in common. Diana McPherson sent me an Onion-type article a couple of years ago where New Zealand and Canada were to become one country (New Canada) and Australia and the US were doing the same. (I can’t remember their name.) It was hilarious, but at the same time there was a lot in the article that was very accurate about the nature of the stereotypical people of both countries.
As I said above, I only joined Facebook because of this site. I hate that I had to join, and would prefer not to. I don’t think I’ve ever put anything about my personal life on there apart from in my initial profile, and that’s the way I plan to keep it.
Very interesting information on abortion in New Zealand. When it’s all said and done the conversation and decisions on this should be female only. Anyway, good to know you are doing well and getting things done. I suspect your readers are from far more than the U.S. Even here the trend is, people in one region know little about what goes on in others. For instance, very few who live east of the Mississippi river have any interest in what goes on out on the great plains. Since I live out that way I notice those things. Learning things is what we do best if we listen and read. I did not know your readers included retired RAF members but that is good to know on this memorial day.
So glad to hear that you are improving and I do hope that such progress continues.
While I agree that Trump may oppose war in principle, I don’t doubt for a minute that if he feels that being a “war president” will help him be re-elected in the runup to the 2020 election, that’s what he will do. Principle will never stand in the way of his ambition, greed, and ego.
Wonderful to hear you’re feeling better, Heather. Seems NZ has the spam problem with women’s reproductive rights as we. One hopes the law will be changed. Many of us are worried abounthebsaber rattling as regards to Iran. Seems we are never going to be at peace.
Thanks for the mini-homily Heather. So happy to hear you are back to where you were. Phew, it probably took longer than you thought. Hopefully you’ll stay healthy moving forward.
I don’t do facebook, rats! I actually have a Mark-armor account on facebook, but I don’t do anything with it. The friend who set up my web site created a facebook page for seo, but I don’t update it or anything. I don’t even remember the password to log in…I’m somewhat of a Luddite.
If I had to make a bet, I would have bet abortion was already legal in NZ. At least it seems relatively easy to get around the law. Hopefully NZ will make it fully legal as well as marijuana and euthanasia.
No surprise what’s happening in Iran. Many people predicted that Bolton would be itchin’ for a conflict. Even if Trump wanted a war, the American people don’t. I don’t think his supporters want a war either. I don’t see what Bolton et al. see as an upside to fighting Iran…so unbelievably dumb.
Those snails are fun to watch…nom, nom, nom.
It did take longer than I thought. In my imagination I thought the right chair would mean I was fine again straight away. The reality was somewhat different! Still, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the enormous kindness of my benefactor, and for that I’ll always be grateful and thankful. What my life would be like otherwise doesn’t bear thinking about.
It’s really pretty weird that abortion isn’t legal here. In many ways we’re one of the most progressive countries on the planet. E.g. prostitution has been legal here since 2003, and same-sex civil unions were made legal the same year. (It took another decade for same-sex marriage though – 2013.) We’re a popular holiday destination for the gay community as they can be open about their relationships here by such things as openly holding hands and other PDAs with almost no one blinking an eyelid. We had the first trans MP. She served three terms starting in the 1990s. Previously she was mayor of a provincial town. In her teens and early 20s she was a male sex worker. Needless to say, she was a major force behind the legalization of prostitution. (Actually, I do think I know the reason abortion never got made legal, but if I write about that here there’d be no point in finishing my post!)
A lot of the neocons (not all) are x-tian dominionists – that is they see the divine mission of the US is to use its military might to impose x-tianity on infidels around the world. Those who are not dominionists merely want to impose global dominance by the US and have visions of military glory.
The number of Dominionists in, or close to, the US government is something the whole world should be worried about. I remember that people were concerned about the number back in Bush 43’s term, but there are a whole lot more now, and they’re closer to the throne. I get the impression from the way he talks that Mike Pompeo is a Dominionist. Even if he’s not, he believes in all that End Times rubbish. It is very scary having someone with those beliefs as Secretary of State.
There seems to be a lot of sophisticated language and ideas about Dominionism on the net but is it really much different than sharia to Islam. I think of Mike Pompeo as a giant gas bag from Kansas but mostly just someone like all republicans being led around by the noise by our dictator. Kansas would just be another example of how religion can nearly destroy a state if you let it. After years of republican religious government, the education system was a disaster and everything else in bankruptcy, but hey, they had low taxes. Currently attempting to turn things around but the religion is still everywhere. The founders left religion out of our constitution for good reasons and mostly the memory of what it had done in Europe. There is room for many more FFRF groups in this country to fight this plague.
Personally, I think that Dominionism and Islamist extremism are the same thing in different religions. Both believe the same things in many areas. Death penalty for homosexuality being an obvious one. The only reason Dominionism isn’t as bad is they’re mostly stopped by the consequences of breaking the law in the US.
Yes, it is weird that in NZ abortion is still illegal. Maybe the ‘mental health’ clause made it less urgent to change the law, since in practice it means it is de facto legal.
NZ was the first country to give women the vote (unless one counts some isolated US state as ‘a Country’).
In most of these progressive legislations, Woman’s vote, same sex marriage, abortion, de-criminalisation of Cannabis, environmental protection, neglecting blasphemy laws, etc. etc, NZ is -with some European countries, such as Holland or Denmark-, right in front.
Facebook cannot replace your site.
And Grania Spingies, a friend from WEIT, died.
Why couldn’t Mc Connell?.
There is no justice in this world.
I’m in complete shock about Grania. Jerry and I were talking about how long she’d been ill on Skype the night before he left for Hawaii, and I promised to add my advice to go to the doctor to his (which I did). I was very concerned about her, but of course you don’t really think someone as young as her will die. My assumption was always that the doc would sort her out. That fact there’s no justice in the world is obvious when we lose someone like her and Trump continues to get rid of the remains of McDonalds in a gold-plated bathroom.
I promise I’m working on a post. Things keep getting in the way. I’m averaging a couple of hours every second day, which isn’t much, but at the limit of my capacity. One of the problems is it’s up to almost 5,000 words long, and there’s not much time left once I’ve read it from the beginning again, correcting it as I go. Also, as it’s about abortion it’s important to me to counter all the arguments of the forced-birth movement before they make them, and also that my data are completely accurate.
You know it’s true, only the good die young. That is why I will go on longer than necessary. My wife’s mother turns 100 next month and there is not much to be said about that. Maybe she will outlive us. She became a religious person somewhere along the trail, SDA of all things, my wife pretty much stayed away. However, I think maybe she has outlived her belief so maybe there is something good about that.
The best I can say about abortion is that it is between a woman and her doctor. No one else. Can’t believe what is going on right next door over in Missouri. Those people are mostly nuts and mostly med-evil. One clinic left in the whole state and they are trying like hell to close it. The religious in America are beyond help.
All the stats (worldwide) show banning abortion actually increases the number. All the ban does is make them less safe. One of the cases I try to make is that it’s actually about controlling women. or at least more about that. Because the leaders of the forced birth movement must know the stats. The only stat you ever hear them using is raw numbers in isolation, which tell you very little.
Yes but also the religion. The brainwashing religious madness that we are killing people.