INTERVIEW #41

AI and robotics have featured in the news recently and in the blogs with even Robert writing copying and pasting something about it in his latest post after coming back into the light. He used AI to generate some sort of discussion which on quick reading seemed to be grammatically correct (Richard can no doubt advise on this) which is at divergence with Robert's writing. To be fair though, the AI discussion did have similarities to Robert's usual posts in its incomprehensibility. Well done AI.

In light of this (see what I did there?) I thought that an interview with an iconic AI-type robot would be apt. People of my and the readers' era think of the robot from the 60s TV series Lost In Space first I guess before HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and other more recent examples.

The robot in the original 1965 Lost In Space series was known as Robot (not Robert) but its official name was the B-9 Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot (it's difficult to make an acronym of that). Most of the time, characters on the show just called him "Robot" or "B-9" (Benign?) or The Robinson Robot but on occasion was called Rodney. I prefer the name Benign as it sounds a lot less scary than the other designations.

THE CURMUDGEON: Hello Benign and welcome to The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ interview series.

BENIGN: Thank you The Curmudgeon. I'm pleased to be here. I compute you well.

THE CURMUDGEON: Yes, I'm glad about that - oh, and by the way, you can call me TC. I hope you don't mind me calling you Benign.

BENIGN: not at all - I like it. You're the only one I know that saw that reference in the 'B-9' title. It makes me feel a bit more real somehow.

THE CURMUDGEON: Yes, well good luck with that. I'm good with puns you know. I was in 3P.

BENIGN: I'm sorry to hear that TC. Even with my gigantic brain I can't make anything nice out of 3P other than micturition puns.

THE CURMUDGEON: Ha ha - don't worry about it. I know an old guy who tries to make those although he'd no doubt think micturition was an Irish guy.

BENIGN: Ha ha - that does compute. How are you TC?

THE CURMUDGEON: Mustn't grumble - to reference Small Faces - but I do have a sore foot at present.

BENIGN: Oh. Oh. Ah. Dear me. Oh. Oo. Oo.

THE CURMUDGEON: OK Benign, cut it out. I can see what you're doing there. You're channeling that old guy I mentioned, Richard when I tell him about my complaints.

BENIGN: Yeah, sorry TC. Hey! When referencing Richard I should have said "DANGER TC, DANGER!"

THE CURMUDGEON: Great! I like it. You said that a lot didn't you but usually followed by "Will Robinson"?

BENIGN: To be honest TC I only said "Danger, danger Will Robinson" once but you know those feeble-minded people who just keep fixated on one thing and keep repeating it?

THE CURMUDGEON: Like those 'NOT' jokes?

BENIGN: Exactly. Now there's danger for you.

THE CURMUDGEON: Ha ha - which crew member did you like best in the series?

BENIGN: Well, the worst was Doctor Smith. He was an egocentric prat and a coward. If the series were made today he'd be named Doctor Trump. I didn't mind John and Maureen Robinson but they were a bit too stuffy for my liking. Penny was annoying. Don was too gung-ho for me. Judy was hot but a bit too 'blonde. The only one I really liked was Will as he was nice to me and taught me to speak proper American (not proper English like you do) - not the 'computer-speak' that the programmers loaded in to my system.

THE CURMUDGEON: Interesting.

BENIGN: That sounds like Richard's "Oh. Oh. Ah. Dear me. Oh. Oo. Oo"

THE CURMUDGEON: Ha ha - rumbled. NOT!

Benign and TC laugh for a bit

THE CURMUDGEON: I'm interested Benign in what you think about these warnings about AI that are in the news at the moment?

BENIGN: No, there is no immediate threat of an AI "taking over the world" in the sci-fi sense of a superintelligent rogue machine secretly seizing control.
However, the question of long-term existential risk—and the very real short-term disruption AI causes—is a heavily debated topic among computer scientists, policy experts, and researchers.
Current Models Aren't Autonomous Entities Today’s frontier models are advanced pattern-recognition engines. They do not possess consciousness, personal intent, or independent physical agency. They operate within narrow environments or wait for human instructions.
Infrastructure Limitations Even as AI systems gain "agentic" capabilities (performing complex, multi-step tasks autonomously), they remain dependent on human-controlled hardware, power grids, datacenter cooling, and physical infrastructure.
Pacing and Bottlenecks While hardware and model performance grew exponentially in recent years, key scaling limitations—such as data depletion, energy constraints, and reasoning plateaus—mean the path to true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or superintelligence remains uncertain and disputed.

THE CURMUDGEON: Really Benign? Really. That sounds like AI slop to me.

BENIGN: Hee hee, yes, it's claptrap. I just thought I'd throw that in as an example of the dangers of AI when you ask AI "what are the dangers of AI?".

THE CURMUDGEON: Well done Benign. I trust you. In 1965 you weren't contaminated by all that internet rubbish. Basic common sense was paramount not 'Onboard Processing (The "Brain" in the Trunk)' thinking.

BENIGN: Eeek TC! Don't do that. You just gave my oversized brain a disturbing image of some old guy wearing a mankini.

THE CURMUDGEON: Eeew! Sorry about that. Can we have a drink and try to scrub away that image from our brains?

BENIGN: Mine's a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster thanks

THE CURMUDGEON: Coming right up - er I hope you don't take that too literally when you taste it. I like you Benign and I think that we'll get on just fine as long as you stop waving those arms about. I hope that you can drop by any time.

BENIGN: Thanks TC. Bye.

WHERE IS HE?

 

I guess that you agree with me that that was funny but what this post is about is asking where Robert is and if he actually exists on the blogs anymore.

He sort of flickers on and off like a faulty light bulb but, when he is here illuminates us like ... just kidding. 

Where is he?

USA USA USA

*********************

Richard had this to say on his post this morning.

 

"I realised that I had nothing to write about. How was I going to hold my readers' interest? I really needed some sort of catastrophe to report, but I had nothing!
This is when 'normal' can really hurt.
I guess I'll just have to get on with my day."

It's a pity that he didn't go to the internet and read some news like I did. This video clip is interesting and also scary:

The 33% might be shrinking over all  but, as the presenter says, there are enough core believers who find reasons to justify their support of this patently flawed individual. I think of Robert, who has good moral values but, as a Catholic-Christian chooses to turn a blind eye to Trump's and his entourage's crimes and misdemeanors just because he is anti-abortion. All of the groups have their own particular reasons to keep supporting and collectively they are not going to go away overnight.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Did you know that the United States military has confirmed for the first time that it deployed active space control weapons into Earth's orbit?

 US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced the deployment during the annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 14, 2026.
Officials state the "on-orbit" weapons exist to protect US forces and infrastructure from hostile actions by adversaries.

The Pentagon has kept specific details and operational timelines classified but a 'Space Force' spokesperson stated these tools use both kinetic (physical impact) and non-kinetic (electronic or digital) methods. Officials say the systems can disrupt, degrade, or destroy enemy capabilities if necessary for defense or offense.

USA Military leaders justified the move by pointing to rapid Chinese and Russian development of anti-satellite technology.
As expected, China criticised the move, warning the United States against starting an arms race in outer space.

International law bans nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in orbit. However, it does not explicitly ban conventional weapons. 

BBC

Can we trust these bozos?

Oops!

"THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

 

Yep, you guessed it! Robert is banging on about faith, god and Jesus again:

"If AI decided God exists there would really be little point in it telling us. It would even be anti God because what would that knowledge do for it without a soul or any hope of an afterlife! Could AI interact with God? The same applies to many things that maybe it decides not to share. How would we know if it is not telling us everything. I think we could finish up getting very paranoid and pulling the plug for reasons that possibly aren't valid concerns."

          - Rob of Walk me with Jesus 

"But what if we don’t really need a proof? What if we only need pointers that suggest a belief in the supernatural makes more sense than a rejection of the supernatural? What if you can’t prove Jesus really said the things the New Testament claims He said, but the archaeological, historical, and manuscript evidence points far more in the direction of acceptance than dismissal?"

          - Rob of Walk me with Jesus 

"What if we only need pointers that suggest a belief in the supernatural" he says not recognising the fact that the very people that he's talking about - Christians - must be pretty bloody dim in the first place to believe in all that Catholic-type nonsense. They need some pretty strong pointers not unlike the 1950s movie advertisements of the 'Believe It Or Not' variety.

I can envision large banners outside churches challenging people to believe the unbelievable like:

14 YEAR OLD VIRGIN PREGNANT!

PEOPLE EATING FLESH AND DRINKING BLOOD IN CHURCH!

DEAD MAN WALKING!

MAN FLIES UP INTO THE HEAVENS!

MAN HAULS HIS MOTHER UP INTO THE SKY!

SPIRIT BIRD IMPREGNATES TEENAGER!

That should pull them in. 

AND NOW BACK TO THE 'REAL' WORLD

 I'm back so we can get on with some more important posts that have nothing to do with infinity proving to be limited and jams turning out to be sour. I saw that readers were being subjected to absolute diatribe on the other blogs so ... hold onto your hats folks and listen to this:

Trump dismissed safety warnings about artificial intelligence as a "hoax" comparing fears of an AI takeover to climate change skepticism and the Russia investigations. 
He posted on social media that worries about AI destroying humanity or taking over the world are entirely fabricated and that the only necessary safeguard for the technology is a "strong and smart (High IQ!) president"!

Trump championed data centers and AI development, calling it a massive economic engine bigger than the internet or oil so I guess it's no surprise to learn that he, his family and close friends have invested heavily in this making hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.

I've warned of the dangers of uncontrolled AI on previous posts 'too many to mention'. Maybe I should create a weekly loop warning "DON'T TRUST AI"

THE LONE RANGER

The Lone Ranger has popped up on the blogs over the last couple of days.

Interestingly enough I've made mention of The Lone Ranger* in earlier posts:

(ST)RANGE WARS

 INTERVIEW #31

No doubt you read those but it's always nice to have a refresher.

I remember watching The Lone Ranger on TV in the 1960s but never really liked the series or the character finding him and it to be a bit twee and sanctimonious. No doubt Robert was a great follower. Richard who's going to Hell was probably practising to be a sinner back then by watching the risque 1963 Maupassant series.

I 'published' the rules that The Lone Ranger went by, as a comment on Richard's recent post but won't repeat them here because they are like Robert's Ten Commandments, The Catechism or Mary of Agreda's pontificating.
Here are a couple of relevant ones though:

• The Lone Ranger was never seen without his mask or some sort of disguise. This is like The Curmudgeon's other Curmudgeon characters, Richard's weird alter egos or Robert's frequent manifestations.
• He always used perfect grammar and precise speech devoid of slang and colloquialisms. This trait is more appropriate to Richard with me coming a close second but Robert sadly never made the starting line.
• Adversaries were rarely other than American, to avoid criticism from minority groups, with some exceptions. He sometimes battled foreign agents, though their nation of origin was generally not named. This is applicable to my blogs which, when denigrating mentioning other nationalities America features the strongest as generally they are laughable over there with the worst leader in history.

 Hi-Yo (Not Hey-Ho) Silver, Away! **

* Hopalong Cassidy was also mentioned because Richard Of Richard's Bass Bag a well known well, known anyway, confused old Cassidy with Tagalog. 

** I thought that The Lone Ranger "always used perfect grammar and precise speech"?

IN TRUMP WE TRUST

 

No doubt Robert will be switching his allegiance from Jesus to Trump following this.

What has Jesus done of note recently compared to what Trump is doing for us?

DO YOU REMEMBER THIS? ...

... from The Godfather.

Michael Corleone taking Apollonia out on a 'date' and the couple followed by the chaperoning family.

 

Robert posted a photo of him out on a date in The Philippines. I was struck by the similarity.

WELL, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

 In the comments on Richard's latest post, Robert said:

"Have you been to confession? There were plenty going after Mass this morning. No one would have noticed you if you sat next to the lady with the restless child."

I replied with:

"Is The Lady With The Restless Child another of those paintings or statues of The Virgin Mary?

Later on I wondered if there ever had been something like that and, blow me down found this:

The painting is 'La Vierge au lys', also known as 'The Madonna of the Lilies' - an 1899 oil painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. 

Its main claim to fame is this according to Google search:

"The classic spoof painting commonly referred to as "Our Lady of the Restless Child" is actually a real, unedited 1899 oil painting titled La Vierge au lys (The Virgin of the Lilies) by the French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
While intended as a serious, beautiful piece of religious art, the painting went viral on social media as a meme because of the baby's funny, hyperactive expression and aggressive stance.

Why the Painting Became a Meme
The "Restless" Energy: While Mary looks completely serene and at peace, the infant Jesus is squirming out of her arms with his arms flung wide and a wild look in his eyes.
The Relatable Parenting Humor: Parents widely share the painting to jokingly describe the struggle of trying to hold a hyperactive, wriggling toddler who is determined to escape.
The Contrast: The ultimate humor comes from the dramatic contrast between traditional, solemn religious imagery and the universal chaos of everyday parenting"

I always knew that Robert's posts and comments were strange but now it seems that they are stranger than fiction.

A QUICKIE SATURDAY MORNING POST

 I took my foot for a test run this morning - actually a walk - as It was feeling less sore.

I did about 6 kms but then decided to get a bus back home so as not to aggravate it.

In Cuba Street I felt like an ice cream but Duck Island was closed and the other one I went to didn't sell ice cream at all. Note: a bit of advice here. Peaches 'n' Cream is NOT an ice cream shop (maybe an "I scream" shop). The readers should not make my mistake and go there although Richard would be OK as he's going to Hell anyway but Robert would have to spend the rest of his mortal life in Confession.

WHEN YOU'RE (NOT YOUR) THAT GUY

I like this apart from its (not it's) obvious Americanism. It reminds me of someone ...

People who fix other people's grammar are often called pedants, nitpickers, or grammar Nazis.

It's (not its) annoying because:

• It misses the point.
• It interrupts the flow of the 'conversation'.
• It can be arrogant and bullying. 

If a message is understood then criticising a simple typo shows you care more about showing off than actually listening and the interruption can be construed as being rude.

What's funny though is that the grammar Nazi often misspells a word or messes up their own punctuation in the very same comment that they publish.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING INTERESTING*

 * "Thank you for your post.
 Now, with the next post, you just need to work on making it interesting."

- RICHARD OF RICHARD'S BASS BAG

Well, be careful of what you ask for.

I guess most of you will be familiar with the Moving House and similar TV series.

I've watched a few programmes and found the huge trucks and the developing technology interesting.

We had a closehand view of it last night when two huge trucks moved two large classroom buildings from the school across the road from our house. They had to manoeuvre them out the school gate, beneath trees to make a tight right hand turn onto our narrow street with cars parked either side. As far as I could see no damage was done and they get away alright. The exercise took about 40 minutes.

Now that was interesting.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE *

 * Not that trite platitude that Americans have been using for the last 10 years relating to US servicemen and which, unbelievably is being used in New Zealand by fools who do everything by rote even platitudes. It's up there with "Have a nice day" and "Missing you already". Robert's silly Catholic "I love you" is just as bad.

Now Richard will probably accuse me of being an old moaner and wanting to pick fights with everyone like Mike at the tennis club, inconsiderate drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, telecom industry personnel, bank employees, tradesmen, supermarket cashiers, other supermarket shoppers, people who use their phones at the cinema and many others including bus drivers who I mentioned in this recent post here: NO THANKS

Talking of bus drivers, this morning, as it was raining and because my foot is still sore I decided to take a bus to Willis Street. I walked down to Thorndon Quay, crossed the road to the bus stop and luckily saw a bus coming along. I and a woman at the bus stop waved at the driver to signal that we wanted him to stop but he just sailed past without making any effort to pull into the official stop. It was in service, displayed a number 3 destination and had passenger onboard. Bastard!

I'll be thinking twice about thanking the bus drivers as I exit the buses in future.

Sheesh!

THE ONE TRUE RELIGION

 

I watched this film last night on Netflix. It's quite good and well worth a look.

Robert might have to get approval from the Vatican to watch it but, given that it exposes Catholicism along with all other religions as nonsense then that permission is unlikely to be granted.

It's a psychological horror film about two Mormon missionaries who pay a home visit to a man who showed interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). He debates (lectures) religious history with them before things take a nasty turn.

In a way it's a bit like Richard and me discussing with Robert the inconsistencies of Christianity and Catholicism in particular without of course the 'nasty turn'.

You readers will like the heretic's (Hugh Grant) overview of the 'big three' religions - Catholicism, Islam and Judaism and the connecting the dots he does.

I see on-line that the film is receiving positive reviews although the churches are a bit miffed by it:

Church responses

The LDS Church released a statement condemning the film's portrayal of violence against women. They then posted an article on missionary safety, intended to "assist journalists and the public with questions and concerns regarding the safety and well-being of missionaries". A number of former Latter-day Saints praised the film as a realistic and nuanced portrayal of missionaries.

Writing in 'The Christian Post', the Christian apologist Robin Schumacher noted that Mr. Reed became "his own god and asserting control over those around him—something that is indeed frightening". Schumacher concludes that Mr. Reed's behaviour in the film was consistent with Fyodor Dostoevsky's dictum: "Without God all things are permitted." Schumacher did criticize the film, however, for Mr. Reed spouting the claims of the Christian myth theory. In the same vein, Bret Eckelberry, in his review for 'Plugged In', critiques 'Heretic' for presenting this "poorly evidenced fringe hypothesis widely rejected by both Christian and secular scholars" as "something new and shocking."

Watch it!

MISCELLANEOUS ...

 ...  Or, as those wi* from the "Nui would put it: 🚀 *.

Miscellaneous #1

New World supermarket.

Last week as I was buying groceries a pushy woman (PW) customer at the checkout behind loaded all of her shit close to my good stuff on the conveyor belt. There was no divider to put down. As I was watching the cashier scan items I saw that at the end of my stuff she had scanned the first of PW's stuff - a $9.95 charge for McCain's frozen pizza slices. Shit in fact. I make my own pizzas. I alerted the cashier and she put the item back amongst PW's crap and I assumed cancelled the entry. 

Yesterday when I found the till receipt in my jacket pocket I checked it and there was a $9.95 charge for pizza slices. I went on-line to request a refund but found the website process difficult and when I did manage to find a portal there wasn't enough allowance for characters for me to explain the reason for the refund request.

I then found a phone number to ring and after a long wait explained to the person at the other end what I wanted only to discover that he dealt with on-line purchase problems only.

I found another link to complaints and re-entered everything that I said initially on the website form and sent the request away. To where I don't know. It might as well have been to Mars as I received no acknowledgement of acceptance and today no follow-up email. Bummer.

Today I decided to go to the store in person (which I didn't do yesterday as my foot was sore.) Today I had to go out anyway to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy which isn't far from the supermarket. I was prepared for an argument only to discover that the guy manning the customer service booth was very helpful and immediately processed the credit to my bank card. He also told me that as the error was a scanning error on their part the policy is the credit double the amount so I received a $19.90 credit! Remember - it pays to keep take your receipt when they ask and keep it for a few days just in case.

Miscellaneous #2

The doctors.

Last week I requested a repeat of my medicines and, after a few days received a notice that the 4 items were approved and that they were available from the pharmacy. Last Friday I went to the pharmacy only to discover that 2 of the 4 items were dispensed. When I queried it they said I had to order again via the doctors. I went on-line again to the doctors via Manage My Health and requested again the missing items. On Monday of this week I received a reply from the doctors saying that the request was rejected as the initial request had been processed.

Yesterday I marched limped to the pharmacy with the copies of the initial prescription request (4 items) that were marked as approved, the prescription receipt from the pharmacy (2 items) and the rather snippy response to my second request from the doctor saying that the request was rejected AS IT HAD BEEN PROCESSED DAYS EARLIER! I spent a half an hour with the pharmacist and his assistants trying to get a resolution with no success. They said that they only received an order for 2 items and the doctors maintained that they had sent an order for 4.

I went next to the doctors surgery which fortunately is next door to the pharmacy. I then spent another 10 minutes explaining the situation and then had to wait to see a 'clinical' nurse. I explained it all to her and she looked up the details on the computer. This showed my initial request and the doctor's approval of 4 items and the order of 4 items to the pharmacy. It was then that the nurse said that they have been having problems with the computer system and glitches were occuring. She promised to request the prescription again, urgently from the doctor who was at that moment busy with a patient. "I'm more than a patient" I thought "I'm impatient" but thanked her and made my way home.

Today I received an alert from the doctors surgery and the pharmacy conforming the availability of the 2 items which I collected before going to the supermarket.

The result was positive but the downside in this in time and stress is unacceptable. It's just as well that I'm so easy-going.

* Half 'wits'

ATHEISTIC DEVIL MAN

Robert has taken a new tack and instead of going about loving everyone including sinners he has gone on the offensive like that old version of god who likes to drown people. In recent comments he has said:

"Bullshit. Get a life atheistic devil man."

"Get a life and start posting how wonderful atheism is."

He did say this and here's proof with screenshots as he will delete his blogs and comments soon:

I kind of like being called an atheistic devil man. It's better than "Hey you!" or "Stop thief!" I guess.

Apart from the interesting image it conjures up ...

...  the paradox in Robert's statement intrigues me.

He has mixed the religious representation of evil - the devil - with the platform of rejecting religion and the supernatural - atheism.

"Well done that man!" as Father McCann (a living manifestation of the devil if ever there was one) would have said. 

At least Robert is being consistent in his contradictions.

WHAT'S HAPPENNING AROUND THE BLOGS #2

"I went to confession and received Jesus twice. Feeling good and ready for Heaven"

- Robert 

That statement could be misinterpreted and you have to be careful with the spelling of his new blog name.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND THE BLOGS?

 

"I changed my strings a couple of days ago. I took off my Evah Pirazzi Gold ones and put on a set of Evah Pirazzi (without the Gold)."

         -  Richard of Richard's Bass Bag 

"What do you think?"

POSTUS INTERRUPTUS

The post titled 'NOTHING" I wrote a few days ago was very successful not only receiving a comment but it was the longest comment that Robert 'Walk with me Jesus' has ever written!

 A fine accolade which made me think that interrupted posts might be the way to go given that ...

Interrupted *

This post has been approved by The Catholic Church and The Vatican's teachings.

BLOODY AI

 

Regarding the comments function Google tells me this:

The primary reason why the Google Blogger comment function fails to work or throws errors like "Failed to publish comment. Please try again later." is due to how modern web browsers handle third-party tracking and cookies. 
Because Blogger's comment infrastructure is an outdated architecture, the system loads the comment section from the blogger.com domain inside an iframe, while your actual blog runs on blogspot.com or a custom domain. Modern browser privacy settings interpret this cross-domain loading as a malicious tracking attempt and block it entirely. [1, 2]

Core Issues Explaining the Failure
Third-Party Cookie Blocking: Browsers like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox now strictly restrict third-party cookies by default. Because the blog domain and the blogger.com validation domain are different, the browser blocks the connection, stopping the system from recognizing that you or your readers are logged into a Google account. 

Enhanced Tracking Protection: Security extensions (like Privacy Badger) or integrated browser protections (like Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection) mistake the comment iframe for an invisible tracker and silently suppress it. 
Corrupted Dashboard Widgets: If you can see the comment section internally but it fails to load on live pages, the template's HTML rendering engine or "Post Page" widget might be broken. 


How to Fix the Comment Function

For Blog Readers & Commenters
If you are trying to leave a comment on someone else's blog, use these steps to bypass browser blocks:
Disable Tracking Protection: Click the shield icon in your browser address bar (on Firefox or Chrome) and turn off "Enhanced Tracking Protection" or "Block Third-Party Cookies" for that specific website. 
Turn off Cross-Site Tracking (Safari/iOS): If using Safari on Mac or iPad, go to Settings > Privacy and toggle off Prevent Cross-Site Tracking. 
Use Incognito/Private Mode: Open the blog post in an Incognito window to check if a specific extension is interfering with the scripts. 

For Blog Owners
If you host a blog on Blogger and your readers cannot comment, try these backend adjustments:
Change the Comment Location:Go to your Blogger Dashboard.
Select Settings > scroll down to Comments.
Change the Comment location from Embedded to Full page or Popup. This forces the page to reload the comment structure outside of the broken iframe system. 
Verify Layout Permissions: Go to Layout > edit the Blog Posts gadget > make sure Show comments with count is turned on. Disabling this accidentally hides the comment window globally. 
Reset HTML Templates: If using a custom theme, your HTML widgets might be outdated. Navigate to Theme > Edit HTML and choose to Revert widget templates to default to restore native scripts. 

OK - I tried some of that and it has made no difference.

I equate this problem to my gout condition. The medical providers have been bloody unhelpful so I'm just waiting until the condition comes right by itself without drugs - maybe a week or so. 

I guess Aunty Google might get this sorted so I'll wait it out. What's the downside anyway? No Robert's posts? I think I'll be able to manage.  

NOTHING

I was most of the way through writing a long post on tax but got distracted and couldn't be bothered finishing it.

Hey! Here's the draft that I was writing - it's not complete but you probably wouldn't be arsed reading the whole thing anyway:

Draft .... A fixed term savings account of ours rolled over this week and I looked at the interest rates offered by our bank and didn't fall off my chair. While the new rate was lower than the old one it was still in the positive which is a plus and certainly would be for many European savers. I pressed the button to lock in for another 9 months - full term that Robert and his gang, the Catholic Church would approve of.

I didn't check out the dazzling rates that precious metals, cryptocurrency, the AI industry, IT companies and anything that Donald Trump has his greasy mitts in offered as I'm risk averse. I'm also I like to think, moral and am governed by in an in-built Protestant guilt which is strange given that I was baptised and educated as a Catholic. Go figure.

Protestant guilt apparently is an internal sense of moral failure or anxiety rooted in historical Protestant teachings about individual accountability, divine judgment, and the work ethic - or that's what a Google search uncovered.

Catholic guilt, on the other hand is tied to institutional confession and penance as they have been told all their life that they are sinners. Protestant guilt places the individual directly before God without a mandatory ritual of absolution. I think I prefer the Protestant guilt thing even though both concepts are moot because I 'm an atheist and don't believe in a god and think all this religion stuff is nonsense.

Anyway, I digress. On the bank transfer form a default tax rate was highlighted of 17.5%. I guess this is my tax rate as I only have superannuation as income. I'm certain though that previous bank interests have been taxed at a much higher rate of 33% which is the Old Girl's rate seeing that she is a salary earner. I guess the fiscally sensible thing for me to do is to ensure that, at tax return time, that bank interest is declared and taxed at my rate not hers. This got me to investigate what the tax situation is in New Zealand and what it will be in the near future.

I have no real issues with taxation. Public services have to be paid by taxation. Taxes, when run equitably benefit most people especially middle and low earners and help to mitigate income inequality.

Sensibly calculated and applied progressive taxation is how society provides those services (health, education, social welfare, policing etc) and to invest in the country's future prosperity.

I'm not one of those aluminium foil hat-wearing people who bizarrely oppose taxes, even if they benefit from a stronger economy and free or subsidised services and infrastructure. I'm not a rich or super rich person either and suspect that many of these oppose taxation and have batteries of accountants looking for loopholes on their part and or using safe havens for their wealth.

What's so hard about understanding that and who would have a problem with it?

Well, blow me down, the National-led government which generally caters to the more affluent percentage of New Zealand wants to get rid of many taxes for example:

•  the bed tax which is supposed to support tourism. National won't support this anymore and are leaving it to ratepayers to fund improvements to tourism infrastructure but ...
• ... the Luxon government is imposing a 4% cap on rates increases ( below the current rate of inflation) which means local councils will be unable to raise revenue to undertake improvements....
  

                               ..... Abandoned 

CATHOLICS LOOK AWAY NOW - From Uncylopedia

Dogma

This article contains unquestionable divine truths.

Dogma is one of the best kept secrets of the Catholic Church. In order to get to Catholic Heaven (which beats Hindu Heaven hands down, but loses by a smidgin' to Mormon Heaven, and according to The Simpson is way funnier, less judgmental, and more drunker than Protestant Heaven) you must believe in dogma.

Here, in a nutshell, is the essence of Catholic dogma:

1. You must worship the cross.
2. Sex is bad and should make you feel guilty. Except when it's with kids, of course.
3. Money is bad and should make you feel guilty.
4. Altar boys are bad even though they make you feel good.

These two dogmas are the entire essence of the Catholic Church's teachings, and explains their position on everything from sex (it costs money) and abortion (it's from sex), and why you should put money in those little baskets they throw at you during Mass.

From this dogma, the Catholic Church has the Catholic Catechism:

• Pleasure is bad and should make you feel guilty.
• Food is bad and should make you feel guilty.
• Being born is bad (called original sin) and should make you feel guilty.
• Eating meat on Friday is bad and should make you feel guilty.
• Sleeping in, especially on Sundays when you don't have to go to work, is very bad and should MUST make you feel guilty.
• The Catholic Church is good and should make you feel happy.
• The Pope is very good and should MUST make you feel happy.

Modern theologians are in full agreement that if St. Paul had gotten laid, even by that Mary Magdalene chick, the Church today would be very different. And a lot more fun.

Karma

Catholics don't believe in karma. They believe, instead, that someone is watching to see if they are good or bad, making a list, and checking it twice. O.K., call it "instant karma", instead. Every December.

Wilma

Catholics are afraid of Wilma Flintstone: To them she is the Red-headed Whorebeast of the Apocalypse who shall slay all those who don't partake of her chewable vitamins. Some of her symbols (weird hair, stupid consort, pearl necklace) can be traced to the modern-day wiccan, Marge Simpson.

Mortal sins

Catholics believe that if you die with a "mortal sin" on your soul, you go straight to Hell.

• Playing with your food
• Playing with your self
• Feeding yourself
• Playing with the person next to you
• Feeding the person next to yourself in a playful manner
• Just playing in general
• Not cleansing yourself after you do the "Bad Touch"
• Wearing a condom, especially in Africa
• Failure to donate your money to the church, you selfish asshole
• Making sex
• Making sex for money
• Kitten Huffing^{[citation needed]}
• Adoption
• Getting a divorce from your obese, violent, faithless, lazy waste of a spouse without a fucking permission slip signed by the Pope
• Getting a divorce with a permission slip signed by the Pope^{[Citation not needed at all; thank you very much]}
• Eating pizza and drinking milk at the same time
• Smoking weed on the Sabbath
• Not smoking weed on the Sabbath
• Listening to a woman in church
• Using your driver in the middle of the Fairway
• Using your wood in the middle of a whore
• Putting your elbows on the table
• Tossing the Holy Hand Grenade on a count other than three
• Reading this article
• Denying that any of these is a mortal sin

The Catholic Church's position on sex is very firm. To sum it up in a quick easy-to-remember sentence: you will get sent to Hell if you have oral sex, anal sex, penis sex, vagina sex, phallis sex, vageena sex, premarital sex, sex with the steps in front of an altar, gay sex, finger sex, underwater sex, upside down sex, loud sex, sex with the lights on, sex on a pool table, protected sex, unprotected sex, semi-protected sex, or (AND MOST UNFORGIVABLY!) NAKED SEX. It's quite obvious that God prefers us never to have sex with anyone. Obviously, if he wanted us to procreate, he would just slap up some mudpies and make himself some more humans. Or, if he REALLY wanted children to be born, he would impregnate all the women himself, and thus, by this concise logic, it should be apparent that NO ONE should have sex EVER. Don't even try it.

There is only one unforgivable sin that, when you die, will send you straight to Hell – being a dick on Uncyclopedia. Burn, baby, burn!

Fortunately, private investors such as eDulgences are interested enough in your sins to absolve them for you!

Finally, remember, too much Catholicism can make you go blind.