WINDOWS 3

Nope, still not this

At least Robert and his wife like my posts on the windows in my house.
With all the windows we have I might be able to stretch this series out for quite a while. It's easy, not requiring a lot of brain-box power which is good as I've overtaxed the poor old thing this week dealing with wine labels in Chinese script.

It also has the added advantage of annoying Richard so a Win:Win situation.

Today's window is the one above the back door.

Sorry about the resolution - thunderstorms up here today

The doorway at the end of the hall is quite nice and features a large main glass panel. Above this is another panel that has a leaf motif etched into it. At each side is a blue panel which when the sun is right floods the hallway with a nice glow.

I found a couple of old photos in my files but neither show the effect I'm talking about.

I'll have to take a pic next time that the hall is full of natural light.

WINDOWS 2

NOT THIS

Due to the unprecedented success of the last Post which featured my bathroom window I thought that I'd bring you some more window features.

When I say unprecedented success there was one architecturally challenged old school teacher who posted derogatory comments. O well, you can't please everyone. I hope that he goes well in his endeavours or, as my dear old grandmother used to say "tell him to go fuck himself!"

Todays window is a portion of the door that leads from the hallway to the lounge.

The door is large and wide with the top 2/3 being glass panelled.
At the top in each corner is a small panel with nice etching.

If there is reader interest I will take a photograph of the entire door.and post it next.

WINDOWS

We live in a nice house.

It's spacious - a 5 bedroom villa although one bedroom is used as a study and another as the snooker room. It has high ceilings, a wide hallway and nice features.

Today though I was reminded of why I liked the place when I first saw it. The midday sun was lighting up the bathroom which faces East towards Mt Manaia.

I remember first walking into the bathroom and being struck by this window feature.

Of course the sun went behind a cloud as I took the photograph....

When signing the purchase agreement later I had to be reminded by The Old Girl as to how many bedrooms the house had but I remembered the bathroom.

TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING

I joined the local Civil Defence group recently and am prepared to assist in every, all, some, a few catastrophes that come our way.

They haven't given me a gun yet but hey-ho, it's early days.

...BUT I DIDN'T SHOOT THE DEPUTY

She can shoot herself (in the foot).

BOB MARLEY - I SHOT THE SHERIFF


I really cannot understand how our Deputy Prime Minister has got to this position. I guess it shows the woeful lack of talent that National have in their cabinet.

Paula Bennett couldn't run the portfolios she previously handled without cocking things up and upsetting stakeholders. How the hell is she going to deputise as Prime Minister?

Yesterday. in the PM's absence she totally floundered when questioned about the NZ Government's responsibility and further intentions in the SAS Afghanistan scandal. She not only couldn't give a proper answer -  and we do expect politicians to waffle a bit - but in her case she sounded like a receptionist  caught out when all the bosses are away. She was like a deer in the headlights.

PAULA BENNETT ON MORNING REPORT

Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennnett says there is nothing that has disturbed her in information she has seen about a book alleging civilians were killed in a New Zealand-led raid in Afghanistan.Ms Bennett told Morning Report the SAS was highly regarded and she had faith in the Defence Force.
"They have said they have investigated, they've said that they were not involved in any deaths of civilians, and I would certainly take their word at that."Asked if there was anything in reports and statements she had seen about the book which disturbed her, she said there was "not at this stage".She said she had no immediate plans to read the book and described Mr Hager as a left-wing conspiracist.

Well, does that give you any confidence in someone charged with running the country in the absence of the Prime Minister?

Former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp, who should know, admitted that there were civilian casualties in the botched raid.

Former Defence Minister concedes civilian casualty in 2010 SAS raid in Afghanistan


I'm all for looking at issues rationally and to not go off half-cocked but in a case like this that has important international legal and political ramifications we must expect our leaders to take things seriously and to have proper investigations in place. Firstly the Prime minister should front up about it and secondly no minister of the Crown should be so arrogant (and close-minded) to say "I have no immediate plans to read the book".

Give us a break ....... oh, that's right, we'll get one when these turkeys get chucked out later this year.

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING



What a laugh!

On Sunday we took the kayaks out for a spin. We paddled across to the other side of the bay and had a swim there at a quiet beach.
On the way back I went hell for leather to beat The Old Girl, not stopping all the way.

At our beach I dragged the kayak up to the road and waited for her to arrive. My new double kayak is bloody heavy. When the Old Girl beached I carried her kayak up to the roadside and had a dizzy spell. I had to sit down for a bit to recover. I guess that I'd overdone it on the fast paddle back as I'm a bit under-fit after my bout of shingles over Christmas/New Year.

Once I felt recovered I helped The Old Girl put her kayak away under the house and fitted the wheels to mine and pulled it up the driveway. At the top of the driveway I went dizzy again and sat/laid down for a rest.

At this time friend Rod drove up and parked opposite our driveway. He and his wife were going for a swim. He sighted me sitting/lying down by my kayak and waved. I sort of raised my hand and waved back. I got up after a few minutes and put the kayak away up the back of the house. I then went inside and had a snooze for an hour.

A couple of days later I was talking to Rod and told him that I wouldn't want to be drowning while he was on the beach watching. He'd think I was just waving!

BORN AGAIN

In my post PORN AGAIN a few days ago I talked about the relationship between the easy accessibility of violent, degrading and disturbing pornography across all media and the growth of 'rape culture' amongst young men.


I concluded:

"We can't teach young people about the need for consent and the importance of proper and healthy relationships while the opposite is freely touted in magazines, in film and on the internet porn sites. The slippage in values is something that the current and future generations are seriously going to suffer from. I'm happy that I won't be around in 30 or more years to witness the aftermath of this."

Geremy, aka Robert that born again Christian who lives with the Holy Ghost attributes 'the slippage of values' to lack of belief in the holy bird (in his case a seagull!) and the fact that society isn't applying 'the loving creators' laws thoroughly enough.

See his comments here:

Geremy said...

The slippage of values, or a society's judgement of what is important, will always be a moving target unless it is anchored to laws. God had to give the Hebrews the ten Commandments in the end!

Geremy said...
I was insinuating that morality, (ethics) and Godliness has been abandoned in favour of a selfish egotistical community that worships self instead of the loving creators.

          Geremy said...

Of course it will fly over your head, but why criticize porn while at the same time publishing it?

Geremy said...
1. Morality and ethics isn't dependent on a belief in God.
Answer. You don't have to believe in God but that doesn't mean God was the instigator!
2. Legislation against immorality, illegality and basic wrongs isn't waiting for the go ahead from a mythical episode concerning stone tablets lobbed down from above.
Answer. Exactly. Look at your own post about Trump!
3.Why criticise anything without using examples of what is being criticised?
Answer. I quote your own words. "Typical Christian Bullshit". An example is not required, one standard for atheists another for christians?

I guess that he's entitled to his opinion and in order to present a balanced argument I should follow up on PORN AGAIN with a god-botherers approach to the problem - BORN AGAIN


________________________________________________________________________


BORN AGAIN


Young people become interested in sex. This usually happens at about age 18 especially if they haven't been attending church or saying their nightly prayers. At this age the stories that parents have told them in order to protect them from impure thoughts, about pregnancy resulting from The Holy Ghost touching the mother with a wing tip, are no longer accepted by them. They require more explanation.


It is helpful at this point to remind them that Mary, Blessed Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ was a Virgin. Her pregnancy was by Miraculous Conception with The Archangel Gabriel being sent down by God The Father to 'bless' her. As good Christians they will have no problem in continuing to believe this.

On the subject of sex God has said this on the subject:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication."

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators .... shall inherit the Kingdom of God."

Fornication is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person with a person of the opposite sex. The Bible makes it absolutely clear that God is completely unbending on this subject. All sexual relations between men and women not married to each other are taboo, so taboo in fact that the Old Testament solution to the violation was usually stoning. That ought to give us a fair idea of how strongly God feels about the subject.

Jesus took this even further by instructing that even thinking about committing adultery is as bad as actually doing it.
You see, what Jesus knew and was telling us is that lust usually begins in the mind and if we can keep the idea out of our minds we'll have a lot less trouble with our bodies.

"In the Old Testament God's people were forbidden to commit fornication. Then along came Jesus who said we're just as guilty if we wilfully think about committing it. And that means no sex, period. No romantic daydreaming about real or imagined lotharios ready to sweep us off our feet and carry us away from this "wretched life of singleness"; no secret attachment for our doctor, lawyer, minister or our neighbour's husband; no harmless flirtations with the guy at the office.

- Jo Anne Sekowsky A Christian Road Map for Women Travelling Alone. 

So, with good Christian teaching and observance we can avoid sex altogether except within the confines of marriage and for the purpose of procreation. This of course with the blessing of The Holy Ghost who should be with us at all times, even in our beds.

Outside of these parameters sex is fornication and fornication is forbidden.

Lustful thoughts lead to masturbation. While masturbation isn't technically forbidden by the Bible, lustful thoughts are so we have a Catch 22 situation here. It is better to put aside thoughts of masturbation and then the lustful thoughts will go away as well as they will have no outlet. If in doubt think of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. On second thoughts, best to think of the Holy Ghost as some of the depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are a bit enticing. Better still think of a seagull.

Once we conquer the sinfulness of lust and masturbation we will take away the need for pornography and all of those nasty sites will disappear. There will be no need for governmental legislation. The power of God's Word and the teachings of the Bible will win out as Geremy aka Robert has said:

" God had to give the Hebrews the ten Commandments in the end!"

CRYING ..... OVER U (SA)

Look, regardless of how affected or disaffected you are by USA politics and what's going on over there you probably do sneak a look at the press reports.
There's certainly no shortage of them - real news, 'fake news' (according to Donald Trump), real fake news, left-wing news, right-wing news, amateurs news, funny news - the works.

Under the 'funny news' banner there's actually a lot of good stuff - well written, well researched and well presented and usually from the 'left''.

Below is the latest from Bill Maher.

This is so good. It makes you want to cry.  First because it's funny. Second because this is happening and it will affect us all.

BILL MAHER - TRUMP'S BUDGET

PORN AGAIN

The recent rape culture debate engendered by the on-line behaviour of some Wellington secondary schoolboys underlines some serious problems facing our society.

Interest in sex by young people is nothing new.
Improper behaviour, objectification of women, sexual assault and rape is nothing new.
The immediacy of access to indecent material and the ability to quickly promulgate it is new.

When I was a whippersnapper, becoming interested in sex the pornographic options were severely limited. In the 1960's, in New Zealand there wasn't much in the way of titillating material. Nowadays an advertising billboard or lifestyle magazines in doctors waiting rooms are raunchier than the 'girlie' magazines of the day.

Well-thumbed and traded magazines like Man (Australian) were like gold. These, if ever acquired had to be hidden, preferably away from home in the hideout that most kids of the time had. Ours was a self-built shack in the bushes up the back of our house that contained all sorts of treasures (home-built crossbows, shangeyes, items from the tip), stuff you had to hide from your mother (the jumper you burnt a hole in, fireworks, homework assignments and later, the girlie mags) and things you were building (early versions of skate boards, sleds, trollies, bikes etc).

Novels were always pretty tame or at least the ones we could get hold of. Henry Miller, Anais Nin, D.H. Lawrence, Lawrence Durrell and all of the serious but naughty writers, even if the international bans were lifted were still never on sale,. We had to make do with the suggested titillation in Ian Fleming novels and rubbish like Kyle Onstott (Mandingo series), Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susan. These books fell open at the one or two spots where some sexual activity was badly written about.

Every now and again some kid would turn up with one of those trashy American pulp fiction books that some onanistic sailor had brought in to the country. You know the type. They're probably collectors items now and fetch a lot of money. Our copies, after being passed around so much were ripped, soiled and, after being hidden in the 'shack' damp and mouldy.

'Real' sexual activity took place in the neighbourhood with some of the friendly girls but this was always of the 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' variety. There was no alcohol involved, little touching and, I'm pleased to say, a great deal of awe and respect.

I'm not saying that we were innocent but the times, compared to today certainly offered a lot less than the smorgasbord of pornography available today. Apart from the sheer scale - volume and variety - it is the ease of accessibility that is astounding. Pornographic images, videos, sound recordings, writings and cartoon variants can be found at the click of a button with virtually no age restriction. The formats cover every form of media including interactive video games. I wonder how many parents are unaware of what their kids are accessing on-line.


Now I'm not a wowser - hey, I and my schoolmates 'wanked for the olympics' in our time and we kids were very prurient and would avidly read and pore over whatever we could get our hands on. I bet that Robert even trawled through the bible for the rude bits to get his jollies.
No, it's not the sexy images and titillating stories that are on offer and causing problems, it's the nastiness of the content. There is so much implied (overtly or subtly) violence in pornography that is cancerous. I said in the opening of this post that "Improper behaviour, objectification of women, sexual assault and rape is nothing new" but, today, the pornographic offerings, easily and freely accessible and in so many forms and degrees of awfulness is the 'norm'.

There is no excuse or justification for rape, sexual assault or sexual violence. None. Mealy-mouthed apologies and "well, it happens' shrugs are not good enough. The Wellington jokers and those roast buster guys in Auckland have to be slammed, and slammed hard. What we also have to look at though is the availability and accessibility of the filth in the media and on the internet. OK,OK, I hear you saying that freedom of speech etc. should allow this and that people should be free to make their own choices. I can see that but I can also see an insidious decline in values and a dumbing down of sensitivity. China and India seem to have no problem in shutting down a lot of the more extreme internet offerings. Why can't we?

We can't teach young people about the need for consent and the importance of proper and healthy relationships while the opposite is freely touted in magazines, in film and on the internet porn sites. The slippage in values is something that the current and future generations are seriously going to suffer from. I'm happy that I won't be around in 30 or more years to witness the aftermath of this.

THE CURMUDGEON X RATED

COMING SOON