Blog 1 - 2026

 

What I’m Thinking - Jan '26...

Hear we are at January 13 already. I was thinking I might start a blog about some of the things I’ve been thinking about lately. One of the current news issues at the moment is, if we were to try to put a name to it, “Who is Donald Trump and what do we do with him?”

He recently abducted the Venezuelan president and his administration is saying strange things about taking over Greenland. Europe are up in arms, nothing new there but: What is this Donald Trump fellow up to? I mean the United States does radical stuff all the time. They operate all over the world but usually their missions are shrouded in secrecy. Trump is just such a talker, it must drive the CIA, FBI, NSA and all the other acronyms crazy.

You know Trump is not a traditional conservative, right? As a Kiwi I would cite men like Sir Keith Holyoak, Sir John Marshall and Sir Brian Tallboys as being traditional conservatives. Men who held no nonsense values and favored a hard working life where everyone had equal opportunity. Something like that in any case. No, Mr Trump is a billionaire oligarch like Mr Putin and his friends which is why they get on so well. I’m fairly sure that when they look at you and me they see a herd of cattle or a flock of Emus or something of that ilk. What I’m saying is that they pretend to like us to control us but don’t see us being equal to them.

So how do we assimilate this information. I guess we’ll just have to passively wait and see what happens. The bible tells us that God installs our leaders to keep order and achieve His objectives, paraphrase but you get my meaning. You know what I think anyway. I believe these are the last days of the Church Age and Jesus will return soon but first a time destruction known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Never a dull moment.

Benjamin Netanyahu

So, I recently wrote a few supportive comments about Benjamin Netanyahu on Face-book and encountered a bit of opposition from the alien invasion lunatic fringe muttering about brown haired blue eyed Jesus and a killing children will get you into hell. You know open minded well informed kind of thinking. Interestingly, I was searching up Palestinian DNA the other day to see if they were descended from the Philistines. The blurb said they weren’t but the results might be fudged. However, one article said that the Philistines are thought to have been descended from a European tribe. The Palestinians are genetically similar to middle eastern Jews and Arabs. So the reason they hate Israel; Simply Palestine is Islam and they hate Israel; even though many of the Palestinians could be the same race as the Israelis’. Hard to credit.

As to Ben Netanyahu. Although he is not against Israel being involved in the global economy he is a strong nationalist and a loyal Israeli whilst being at the same time probably the most capable leader Modern Israel has ever known. I believe he is God’s man for the time. Ultimately though, God can defend Israel and he will do so. Therefore we need have no fear, for Israel is here to stay. Despite what all of naysayers and other disenfranchised folk have to say about it. I rather liked this post from face book: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=ben%20netayahu%20amos

Getting Old

I turned sixty five recently and I can tell you that aging is a bit of a concern. You suddenly realise that you may have to retire soon and that the financial ramifications of that are significant. I also seem to be facing hearing which is going into a decline to add to my sight which while being better than 20 – 20 is becoming increasingly long sighted so, I’m blind out to around one meter.

I had a hip replacement some years ago and the fact that the new hip doesn’t match the existing one in gait results in stress on my knee joints and back which leave me in a world of pain. Ligament damage in my left leg causes me to drag myself upstairs with my arms which is causing nerve damage between my shoulders. It all seems to be down hill from here. Oh well, never mind.

Computing

I decided to get back into using Linux just because you have to use the command line a bit more than just clicking install. I started with Neon and Kubuntu two distros by KDE, one of the Linux organisations. I wasn’t that pleased with them this time round and so replaced them with another distro call Arch Linux. Arch is more of a skilled user unit and you have to know what you’re doing to use it, or so I’m assured. I find that there is so much information on the Internet these days you can cut and paste commands and solve problems that someone who knows has fixed before you. You just need to be a bit discerning. I like Linux because it does challenge me and keep my mind active so, it is a part of my anti Alzheimers initiative.

The Weather this Month

The fires are raging in Australia and have been happening in Kiwi-land, as well, over the last months despite what has seemed like a very wet season here. My sister lives in Australia and is in the fire zone so it has been a tense business waiting on the outcomes of alerts and the need to have bags packed and being ready to move. Speaking of fire risk, there is a paddock of rank grass beside our property which isn’t being controlled effectively at the moment.

There is a subdivision up the road from us and a storm water system was needed so the powers that be went to work and after two years had created two large dams and an equally large spillway. The spillway area is being grazed but for some reason the area beside our place is being left fallow. It is covered in rank grass, at the moment, and is a fire hazard. One of the problems with a move away from capitalism is that the signals which cause people to produce more either don’t happen or are ignored in the supposed best interest of something else. Possibly what is happening here… ?

MMP – One Party State

A case in point is the land surrounding Lake Rotorua and the other lakes. This land is under grazing control meaning you can only have a certain number of animals per hectare on that country, The result is a general lack of grazing control and productivity of those farms going through the floor. The land is going to waste. People talk about communism by stealth but when the state controls how land is used at the expense of the economy doesn’t that imply that the government is now more closely aligned to socialism than capitalism. My question is when did this take place. When we changed to MMP did we unknowingly sign onto a one party state. Where political parties are now just sects of the same one party system ??? Is this system socialist?

That’s it…

So, that’s some of the things that are on my mind at the moment. Probably the only thing left for me to mention is “What we are here to do in this life.” I don’t think a lot of people really give a much thought to what they are here for. Most seem to think its about being successful and becoming somebody, or getting your family into a better situation where they are no longer dependent on creating enough wealth to survive.

I am afraid there are over eight billion other people on the Earth who share your aspirations and then we move into the area of social responsibility. Creating a decent level of wealth not just for your family but for everyone. But is this what our existence is really all about? Life is so arbitrary. One minute you’re doing great and then a cancer diagnosis or a car accident and things either change or, suddenly this life is over. Just like that!

Its no great secret that I am a Christian. I believe this life is a temporal and a temporary thing. It is more like a test than a competition. We’re not competing with those around us to be most successful but God is testing us to see if we will seek Him. You see, He wants a people for His own possession, a people who will choose Him and who would want to reign with Him forever.

In that vein, when our first parents disobeyed God and broke their connection to Him. He planned to become a man himself and to take the sins of the world on Himself. Jesus Christ bore our sins on the Cross and shed His blood as the sacrifice for our sins. So that we can believe on Him and receive eternal life. So that we can repent and be baptised in His name for the remission of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit.

You see, if you confess your sins, God is faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Thus, this life is about choosing God or rejecting Him. About, becoming his special people or choosing to forego eternity and to endure the second death. It’s up to you, but it’s not about getting wealthy in the assets of this world rather it is about storing up wealth in the life to come by choosing to obey the one living God, Yahweh Elohim.

There ya go...