Saturday, October 10, 2015

In which the pond tries to avoid the dog botherer but ends up in the morass of Iraq with him ...

First a few distractions, before the pond takes up the onerous burden of spending some quality time with the dog botherer, going about his weekend business of maintaining the fear and the loathing and the hate.

This was an interesting effort by the reptiles of Oz.


Ah, the story might have been removed, but not the header ...

And now for a parochial Pope cartoon ... and more Pope here ...


Yes, there's a nice play on the way a country that runs vile gulags proclaims itself as an oasis of gentility and generosity and tolerance in the Pacific ... as prattling Polonius did only this morning, preening himself on his nicely heated hot rock in reptile la la land ...

But as for the parochial element at play in that papal visual treat, it helps to see the Canberra source ...



Though perhaps this view is even more to the point:


Yes, that fence and the air of ruination and despair helps conjure up an Oz gulag nicely ... or Canberra, if you're a long suffering wearer of cardigans ...

But sob, enough of that, because duty and the dog botherer calls, and it's fear and loathing time ...

Yes, yes, but first let us speak of the dog botherer's head being stuck in the sand.

Please allow the pond to do a little flashback to earlier times, courtesy of an Australian Story transcript here:

Iraq really forms the backdrop of my whole time with Alexander really. A few weeks after I started working with him the international debate about Iraq and what needs to be done began. So I’ve seen Alexander where the Iraq issue from its infancy from beginning to talk about what we should do as an international community to combat Saddam Hussein and the threat he posed right through the United Nations process of resolutions and trying to get Iraq to comply with those resolutions to the formation of the Coalition and the start of the, the war. I was with Alexander when he went in only a few weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein to see the newly liberated Iraq. There was a certain amount of obviously satisfaction at that stage that that had happened and so quickly and of course Alexander’s dealt with all the aftermath. The ongoing violence the great success of the elections and democratic process the fantastic optics of seeing people embrace democracy there and then the horrible reality of that being undermined by violence and I’ve been back into Iraq with him since and so Alexander’s really had a huge focus on Iraq over the past five years. But it’s just been the backdrop its just one issue it’s been very, very hard and at times its been very, very difficult to mount the argument because it’s a difficult argument to mount and you really have to run a complicated debate often with people. It’s difficult for people to understand how crucial this battle this struggle in the middle east for their own security and Australia. That’s one of our great challenges as a government is to explain to people how this affects their security and the security of the entire world and, and that’s, that’s a debate we’re still running today. So Alexander’s been at the forefront of that debate through the success and through the terrible set backs and he’s committed to it today and it still takes up a lot of his time today. But on top of that there’s all the other issues you have to deal with. 
There are there are dark moments in an issue like Iraq because some of the terrible things that have happened but I’ve never had any doubts and I’ve never seen Alexander have any doubts about the fact that this was the right thing to do and needed to be done and needs to be seen through and one now because I suppose he has a context and those in our office we have we have a good understanding of the context of this and we always think about the consequences of not doing anything and that’s what’s often missing from debate. People think that if we don’t have you know if we all ran away from Iraq then it wouldn’t be there. Well the question is what would be there? What would be the issue you’re dealing with there and is that worse than what we’ve got now? Of course there are dark moments terribly dark moments when you hear news of Australians being killed or Iraqi’s being killed, there are huge numbers of Iraqi’s being killed by terrorists and you never become immune to that. You see it as a set back for, for what Iraqi’s want and you see it against the context of being there and meeting people you know. I’ve sat there in meetings Alexander and I have sat there with Iraqi’s showing us the ink on their fingers you know with pride you know they’ve gone out and lined up and voted and risked being attacked by terrorists because they wanted to vote a government in. It’s tremendously uplifting to meet those people and see their pride and you know that’s what they want. We don’t see enough of that we see the terrible consequences of a terrorist attack the next day that’s designed to thwart those people but to the Iraqi people themselves to have the chance to meet them and see the way they’re embracing this you know it gives you heart. But the dark moments are there when there is violence and, and when Douglas Wood was, was a hostage and you’re working day and night with the Department and Alexander’s working day and night with the Department to really to be honest there were many times we thought that it was almost hopeless but to have success there was just wonderful so you have you have moments of high encouragement as well as well as the dark moments the moments of sadness and I think that the trick is to maintain an even path through that. You have those moments you have those thoughts about it but it’s a matter of being clear in your head in what you’re trying to achieve and keep doing the work.

Let's just repeat that last line ...

...it’s a matter of being clear in your head in what you’re trying to achieve and keep doing the work.

Well we know now what they were trying to achieve. A middle east engulfed in war, chaos and confusion, and terror spreading around the world, and they keep on doing that work ...

As long ago as 2003, the pond, which tries to avoid having its head in the sand, or up its fundament in the style of the dog botherer, wondered what blow-back there might be further down the road, after the west got involved for specious reasons on the side of the Shia in their battle with the Sunni and  a cruel dictator ... no doubt because they'd taken such strong steps to sort out North Korea...

There were others who felt the same ... some describe the anti-war protests in 2003 as the largest in human history ...

It did no good, and now we know what its proponents and supporters achieved ... and it took only a further eight years from that Australian Story interview for it to become horribly clear that the dog botherer really does have his head stuck where the light rarely shines ...

But enough of these pleasantries and distractions. Let's bite the bullet and get down with it ... but warning, it's a long rant, and it's perfectly acceptable to put the computer to sleep and go for a walk in the sun, and frolic with children or animals and simply be pleased to be alive, which can't sadly be said for the victims of terror and war around the planet ...


So here we are ... and somehow the dog botherer seems to forget his and Lord Downer's valiant work in the matter of Iraq, and the pacifying and the tranquility and the western democracy and ink on fingers.

If someone forgot to tell the jihadists, should we forget to tell the dog botherer about his own excellent work as a jihadist for the west?

Why only go back to May 2013? Why not go back to 2003?

And then the dog botherer oversteps the line in a matter of the legitimate use of word.

1. 'imaginary':
Something that is imaginary exists only in someone's imagination, and not in real life. 
Many children develop fears of imaginary dangers. ...
...pictures of completely imaginary plants. 

Uh huh, so is this the imaginary abuse of Muslims on public transport?

Racist rant on Sydney train caught on video, passenger defends Muslim woman from tirade ...

Oh wait, the pond should have realised.

Of course ... that's the ABC inventing an imaginary incident and dressing it up for real ... in the style of Capricorn One and its imaginary walk on the moon... though showing less ambition and imagination than needed when it comes to mounting an imaginary war, as managed in the wonderful Wag the Dog.

No doubt the ABC was also on hand to stage the scenes for the classic Good Samaritan assaulted after standing up for Muslim women who were abused on Melbourne train.

Why is it that wits dub as "imaginary" that which is patently real? You really only have to sit in Sydney's public transport for so long before an incident or an encounter or abuse or a scuffle turns up ...

You only have to dial up racist abuse Sydney bus or train on YouTube to collect a few more examples of the common abuse that does the rounds ...



And yet in the imaginary world of the dog botherer,  racist/religious abuse on public transport is imaginary ...

You only have to experience one of these encounters to experience the eternal dilemma between cowardice and taking a stand, of getting involved and avoiding the confrontation ... the palpitating heart, the fear of conflict, the sense of injustice ... which is why the pond luckily can now afford only to catch trains, where the victim and observers can at least move into another carriage ...

And yet in the imaginary world of the dog botherer, such encounters are imaginary ...

But please do go on ... and please, repeat that word "imaginary" ... and then let's get on with the fear mongering on the hate, which is always the point of the exercise ...


So there you go. Sssh, don't mention Palestine, don't mention Iraq, don't mention injustice, because, hey injustice plays into fundamentalist hands ... and whatever you do, please imagine that the bigotry and prejudice is just a one way street ...

Let's make sure these outsiders stay bloody outsiders, where they belong ... and now let's get back to the fear and the loathing, because anyone can be a victim, and anything - even a humble match - can be a potent weapon, and it's possibly best not to leave the house at all, just in case the sky might fall in ...


And then of course there's the unspeakable evil of those who conducted that war in Iraq that helped produce the many unspeakable evils the world confronts today ...

But let's not talk of war criminals ... it's much simpler to write a column for the lizard Oz ...

And now there's just time to take a walk down memory lane. There's more Nicholson here ... and you'll find more modern Moir here ...



And so it goes ... and so it comes around ...

Funnily enough, the latest Moir produces a new variation on that old dog on a leash routine celebrated by Nicholson ...


And people wonder why Wag the Dog is one of the pond's favourite movies ... it might be imaginary, but it's pretty bloody real ...

8 comments:

  1. Gee you know, I reckon if Israel ever did leave the Palestinian territories, there is a very good chance Islamist extremism would no longer target "us".

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  2. Hi Dorothy,

    Tacitus in his history of Agricola, quotes the speech given by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus to his assembled warriors, prior to fighting the Roman Army at the Battle of Mons Graupius.

    "To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace."

    Maybe we can update it for Kenny and replace peace with democracy.

    DiddyWrote

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    Replies
    1. It's a great quote, a pond favourite DW, and if only they'd managed to make a peace of the desolation ... there's the original Latin and a translation here http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/ag01030.htm (I prefer your translation of the phrase):

      29. Early in the summer Agricola sustained a domestic affliction in the loss of a son born a year before, a calamity which he endured, neither with the ostentatious fortitude displayed by many brave men, nor, on the other hand, with womanish tears and grief. In his sorrow he found one source of relief in war. Having sent on a fleet, which by its ravages at various points might cause a vague and wide-spread alarm, he advanced with a lightly equipped force, including in its ranks some Britons of remarkable bravery, whose fidelity had been tried through years of peace, as far as the Grampian mountains, which the enemy had already occupied. For the Britons, indeed, in no way cowed by the result of the late engagement, had made up their minds to be either avenged or enslaved, and convinced at length that a common danger must be averted by union, had, by embassies and treaties, summoned forth the whole strength of all their states. More than 30,000 armed men were now to be seen, and still there were pressing in all the youth of the country, with all whose old age was yet hale and vigorous, men renowned in war and bearing each decorations of his own. Meanwhile, among the many leaders, one superior to the rest in valour and in birth, Galgacus by name, is said to have thus harangued the multitude gathered around him and clamouring for battle:--

      30. "Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that this day, and this union of yours, will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. To all of us slavery is a thing unknown; there are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as we are by a Roman fleet. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will find safety. Former contests, in which, with varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart of the country, and out of sight of the shores of the conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted by the contagion of slavery To us who dwell on the uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this time been a defence. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. But there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace.

      The poor buggers got thrashed of course ...

      Delete
    2. Hi Dorothy,

      Tacitus most likely completely invented the whole of Calgacus's speech but he at least understood that Rome's enemies had valid and compelling reasons to oppose the empire.

      Kenny however is such an idiot that he can't even understand cause and effect or if he does, doesn't even want to think where this anger may be coming from.

      A fool who will never question his own prejudices.

      DW

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  3. Good lord, this sort of unhinged nonsense is exactly what Turnbull has spoken so eloquently against. Are they so deaf that they will not hear?

    Is the botherer angling for a mid-term switch to the Terrorgraph? He's got all the tools in his kit - wild conflations, invented terms to attempt to patronise "the left' or whoever it is that take a position against him.

    Good, good times (not withstanding that I know by not shrieking with concern I am opening the door to blah bloody blah to come in to the country and blah bloody blah.

    CK? How good are the intelligence and police forces in our country? Pretty bloody slick I reckon, perhaps try writing about their good work.

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  4. If #illridewithyou is out, #comeflywithme is in?

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    Replies
    1. Sheesh, you give an entire country the pleasure of 24/7 brave new world orwellian big brother fear, with the shadow of death everywhere in the sky above, never knowing when it might strike, and they have the cheek to complain ...

      Delete
  5. Minor correction, Dorothy - in Capricorn One, the astronauts imaginarily walked on Mars, rather than the Moon. The imaginary walk on the Moon was, of course, broadcast by NASA on July 21/22, 1969. ;-)

    Probably not O.J. Simpson's best role, especially compared to his pseudo-realist courtroom dramas, and the marvelous action of Fairly Slow and Somewhat Annoyed, clearly the inspiration for the Paul Walker franchise...

    ReplyDelete

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