“It’s a deceptively simple question,” sayeth DomPost, a question which nevertheless “pitted science against law”: “What is a riverbed?”

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Over two full pages we pursue the meanderings of water and laws, the intertwining thereof and possible perambulations, whereas for an entire week now the entire Stuff menagerie has dutifully looked away, careful not to mention the war, afraid to engage, claiming somehow the case is closed due to some superficial self-ID wobblerot due to come into force next year or thereabouts, but we definitely have not been presented with anything as archaic as balance, or professionalism, in exploring the much more important question: “What is a woman?”

Instead we’ve had sneer, innuendo, name-calling, even race-baiting defiling Stuff pages as their intellectual construct – Willie-Woman – lays beached and vulnerable alongside the hapless academics desperately trying, but unable, to draw our attention away from very obvious male-bits, while repeating, drumming against our utter disdain and disbelief: “Oh, yeah, those… Look, lots of women have them…”

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The same edition carries the sad, sad news of said self-ID wobblerot having to be ‘put on hold’ due to something called reality – that we can as a country pretend as we like, play games and buckle to the bogey they/them queerxtremist, but we can’t force other countries to follow suit or to pretend likewise – and that there is called a spanner in the works, a fly in the ointment, a shaneel in the lal that will require long delays and many negotiations to come close to sorting out: something that should have been obvious to our parliamentary representatives before conferring false hope on would-be gender-benders. If only someone had taken the problem by the balls at the outset, and spoken of natural laws and unintended consequences, perhaps a lot fewer people would be hurt.

Living in Wellington idbkiwi is self-employed in a non-governmental role which suits his masochistic tendencies. He watches very little television, preferring to read or research, but still subscribes...