New Zealand Conservative

Poland stuck in the middle ~ The Global Think Tank What worries the Poles is that if stability in Ukraine returns under terms suitable to the Kremlin, it may only be a matter of time before it is business as usual with Russia. That would give Russia the space to make another move. A Collective Psychosis Is Taking Hold of Ukraine ~ The New Republic A collective psychosis, born of machismo and paranoia and fuelled by rumour, is taking hold. The latest story gaining traction in the capital is that thousands of Russians—solitary males of military age—have begun to appear in Kyiv, renting rooms and just waiting. “Let them come,” says Maksym, my wiry and intense landlord. “I’ve got body armour and I’m cleaning all my guns.”

“Someone who tries to blow out another’s oil lamp will set his beard on fire,” Kazak Proverb - related by Chinese Vice Premier, Zhang Gaoli, at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum This has sure been an interesting week, a golden week for Mr Putin - its a crying shame that this is the sound bite and that it comes via translator. In Russian he was devastating, on fire with and with far much more than this. His audience got it though and it is clear that the world has changed.

From the Los Angeles times Russia and China signed a landmark $400-billion natural gas deal Wednesday, sealing their friendship at a time when both are unpopular in their neighborhoods and at odds with the United States . In reality this is far bigger than an energy deal, it is a whole raft of projects and the settlements will be in Renminbi and Rubles, not dollars. Cleverly New Zealand has already moved to settle our trade with China in Renminbi bypassing the almighty dollar. This is the USA's bad dream, this is why Ukraine is in turmoil - an attempt to drag Russia into a war, portraying her leader as a re-incarnation of Hitler to head this off at the pass and to separate her from Europe. But Vladimir Putin has decided not to play along for now. But the human catastrophe in Ukraine and Obama's "Pivot to Asia" , talking up China as an enemy, may just have hastened this which of course has been in preparation for years. We live in interesting times, dangerous...

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (C) with his wife Malgorzata Tusk (2-R), Prince Harry (2-L), New Zealand Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae (R) and Polish General Wieslaw Grudzinski (L) arrive for the official ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino Prince Harry stood shoulder to shoulder with Polish veterans as he commemorated their bravery and sacrifice capturing Monte Cassino in one of the Second World War's bloodiest battles. From the (UK) Telegraph : It was 70 years ago on today that troops from the Polish II Corps finally took the ruined Benedictine monastery near Rome - a symbol of Nazi resistance to the Allies' campaign to push Hitler's forces out of Italy. The victory had followed months of hard fighting that left an estimated 250,000 dead. The Prince joined more than 50 Polish veterans of the battle, their prime minister Donald Tusk and many dignitaries for an open-air mass at the Polish Military Ceremony...

The title of this post is based on the title of a story that appeared on the Stuff website over the weekend (' Catholics Tell Gays To Ditch Sex '), that I have changed to more accurately reflect the teaching of the Church. The story is concerning the new video The Third Way that I posted about a few weeks ago, and reports how the Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn, now wants to use the video in teaching the position of the Church on homosexuality. The story begins - Gay people should give up sex if they want to be Catholics, according to a documentary supported by the New Zealand Catholic church. A video endorsed by Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn says homosexual sex is a sin and those who are experiencing same-sex attraction are encouraged to "love God" instead. But the gay community says the doco is "horrifying" and an insidious attempt to make it seem the church is more tolerant towards homosexuals. The Third Way, billed as the church...

Hunter Biden is a 44 year old corporate lawyer from Washington. His father is Joe Biden the Vice President of the United States. Hunter has just been appointed as legal director to Burisma Holdings, Ukraine's largest gas company with extensive holdings in the Donbass. Its major holdings are in the Dombass, in fact The Dombass is 8500 Km from Washington DC following the great circle, in practical terms it is a lot further away. This is Yulia Isotova, a 21 year old nurse from Kramatorsk, it isn't far from the Dombass, in fact is is a small village within the Dombass. She was a nurse and because a nurse from Kramatorsk doesn't earn in a year what a corporate lawyer from Washington charges an hour she is disposable. And disposed she has been, disposed as she set off for work last week Who gets to control European energy supplies is important and 21 year old nurses from Kramatorsk are not. Except to their families and God - in God we must place our hope

From the Daily Mail, No scaredy cats here! Video shows dramatic moment Tara the fearless feline saves autistic boy, 4, from attack by neighbor’s dog : An astonishing video has shown the moment that a family’s cat came to the rescue of their four-year-old son after he was viciously attacked by a neighbor’s dog. Jeremy Triantafilo was sitting on his bicycle outside his family’s home in Bakersfield, California on Tuesday when the dog escaped its home through an open gate and crept up on him from behind. Surveillance footage, which Jeremy’s father uploaded to YouTube, shows the dog grabbing the boy’s leg and pulling him to the ground before violently shaking him with his teeth clamped tight. Then suddenly, an unlikely hero bounds towards him – the family’s cat, Tara. The video shows the fearless feline jumping on the dog with enough force to push him away from the boy . Tara then chases the dog away from the driveway with its leg between its tail. It’s quite spectacular,...

The interviewer is a bit crass in places but he doesn't rattle Sergei Lavrov one of the greatest Statesmen of our age. If you can move beyond soundbites this will be 45 minutes well spent

What a relief! Cambridge, Mass., May 12, 2014 / 06:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A satanic black mass re-enactment being planned by a student group at Harvard University has been ‘postponed indefinitely’ and will not take place May 12. The news was announced by the school’s newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, just over an hour before the event was scheduled to occur May 12. Originally, the black mass re-enactment was to take place on campus, at a pub in the basement of Memorial Hall. The Harvard Crimson reported late on the afternoon of May 12 that the event had voluntarily been moved to The Middle East nightclub, a short distance from campus. However, shortly afterward, the general manager of the nightclub told the publication that negotiations had fallen through and the event would not be hosted there. Subsequently, in a breaking news update at 7:45 p.m. Eastern time, the publication reported that the black mass “has been postponed indefinitely and will not take place tonight, accordin...

Soviet weapons stockpiles remain in Ukraine, where they are secured by Ukrainian armed forces. Slovyansk, where some of the deadliest clashes of the crisis have occurred, is also the location of a stockpile of some five million Soviet-era small arms , according to the British Royal United Services Institute. “The multiple seizures of government buildings in eastern Ukraine, not just in Slavyansk but also in Konstantinovka in Donetsk Oblast are aimed to make it impossible for Ukrainian forces to fully control the territory and, in effect, to cut it off from its strategic stockpile of light arms,” researchers at the institute found. Related link: Why is Ukraine's Army So Appallingly Bad?

The Third Way from Blackstone Films on Vimeo . Blackstone films has just released their movie (that looks to be crowd funded) called The Third Way: Homosexuality and the Catholic Church , which tries to explain the Church's view of homosexuals and what the response of the Church is to homosexuality. Includes interviews with gays who have found acceptance in the Church (with some also saying that the Catholic Church is the one place they do feel that acceptance). Obviously, the 'third way' itself is chastity, which I'm sure the secular world will not agree with. Have a look (the film is around 38 minutes) and see what you think. Film embedded above, but best to click on the first link to view it at a bigger size on Vimeo. h/t Brendan Malone from The Leading Edge.

The Kermlins, a Russian couple with a satirical Twitter feed I posted the following on KiwiBlog and thought I better put it here, too. ... here’s some Russian comedy, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love What’s Happening in Russia , a translation from The New Republic: I make bets. I look at all the possible ways a situation can unravel, pick the worst one, and make a bet on it. Last fall, I won the entire wardrobe—every single piece of clothing, down to the last T-shirt—of the well-known Russian journalist Oleg Kashin. He was sure, you see, that opposition leader Alexey Navalny had a chance of winning Moscow’s mayoral race. I, on the other hand, bet my collection of sandals that Navalny wouldn’t even be allowed into a run-off with the Kremlin candidate. I was right. Oleg acknowledged my victory, but refused to hand over the loot. Ever since, I’ve been stalking him on Instagram, commenting on every photograph he posts as follows: “What a nice shirt!” It...

Russian security forces blocking the way for Crimean Tatars crossing a checkpoint between Crimea and Kherson. Since the annexation by Russia recently, all is not rosy in Crimea: Thousands of Crimean Tatars on Saturday responded to news that their spiritual leader had been banned from the peninsula by blocking several highways in a tense standoff with riot police — the first sign that the Muslim ethnic group's discontent with Russian authorities may lead to turmoil. On Saturday, Crimean authorities promised to dish out criminal charges to the group, which numbered about five thousand, according to the BBC Russian service. The group broke through border posts near the city of Armyansk and crossed the border into the buffer zone between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula to meet Mustafa Dzhemilev, former head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the ethnic group's representative body. The group blocked several highways near Simferopol, Bakhchysarai, Stary Krym, Yevpatoriya and...

In the United States where they are in " look no evil, hear, no evil " mode this will go right over everyone's heads - here to probably as well. But the blood is flowing and simple everyday people are dying in their homes, their lives and livlihoods wrecked to advance the cause of global hegemony. But history is not on the side of the technocrat's empire - every other empire builder that has tried to conquer Russia has ended up destroying itself in the process....