Tuesday, July 26, 2016

In which the pond heads off to the lizard Oz for an obiter dicta referendum ...


Sad to say, the Caterist must be swept away from the top of the Faraway Tree, but what a way to do it, because the pond was mightily impressed by the bile and the hate and the foaming froth and fear generated by the vitriolic parfume of the Devine and the Terrorists ... and all from that humble front page ...


Well it wouldn't have done to splash Girls School Bans Girls, a bit too oxymoronic even for the Terrorists. 

The lizards of Oz are much more cunning in the way they go about their business.

How to stir trouble, how to create doubts and fears about a plebiscite already run out of steam?

Why that's easy, deliver a clarion call for a referendum!



What a clever ploy this is, and it instantly reminded the pond of the wise words of prattling Polonius.


Which in turn reminded the pond of Martin Flanagan's patient explanation that 'Martin' wasn't the same word as 'Richard' in Can you bear it? The confusion of Gerard Henderson ...  because you see, Polonius had started off this way ...


Well there's no good following that link to the Media Watch Dog, because it takes you to the latest issue ... and anyway, this dwelling on plebiscite v referendum was just an elaborate ruse on the pond's part to provide an excuse to link to the reader-inspired Richard Akcland report Hoist with his own pedantry, about Fr. Gerard scribbling for the Catholic Boys' Daily with no trace of sackcloth or ashes ...

Never mind, in all that fuss and confusion, the pond almost entirely forgot that we should be dealing with one Barry Maley and his own handsome attempt at fuss and confusion of a plebiscite v. referendum kind, so here we go ...


Now this is excellent stuff. It means that after a hard-fought, Devine- and Terrorist-led campaign of frothing and foaming fear and mis-representation, the entire result can be dismissed as a short-changed rush to judgment, a hasty misinterpretation and legally suspect ...

Of course Maley - who seems to think that marriage should an interminable life sentence, though perhaps not in the case of Donald Trump - is much loved and cited by the Pellists and other forward thinking types married to Christ - and it turns out that back in 2002 he was a finalist in a prestigious award ...


Or so it says at the ACU page here.

And the eminent scholar had his own splash at his CIS home ...


Hmm, a 2002 finalist with a 2003 book?

Never mind, on we go with the rest of the careful campaign to explain why even a plebiscite might be completely useless ... or even, if the pond might be so grand and Maley Latinate, obiter dicta ...

... though perhaps the pond should observe in passing that in its youth obiter dictum was a matter of some concern, as explained by the eminent John Henry Newman ...


Oh dear, dear, there's a lot more here, and what a distraction it is, when we really should be most concerned with the Maley-ian matter at hand where we might once again see obiter dicta in action ...


Well there was a pompous and portentous blast, as useful a bout of obiter dictum as even a Newman might love.

Of course the unstated hope - perhaps a hope better unstated - is that by imposing the rigorous definition of a referendum, whereby all states must be carried as well as the vote, a stringent requirement that has seen many more referenda fail than get up - it might well be possible to defeat the proposal.

Perhaps the Currish Snail could lead the way in Queensland? Might the west be carried and the outrageous proposal to undermine the catholic understanding of the nature of marriage be terminated?

Could Miranda the Devine and the Daily Terrorists sway the mob to hurl vile abuse at anyone in the vicinity?

Such is the way mischief is made by mischievous minds, facilitated by the reptiles of Oz ... and there will be a lot more of this as the plebiscite approaches, from the overt Devine Terrorists to the legalistic Maleys ...

The onion muncher has left Malware with a corker and the cork is now popping ...

And please, no insolent memes asking obvious questions ...


Let the mayhem begin ...


2 comments:

  1. Is it my imagination, or does Barry (Ern?) Maley resemble a somewhat-aged Eric Abetz? Has Erica been adopting a cunning disguise to lead a double life?

    Certainly, Ern's prose is every bit as tedious as anything Erica has ever produced. That was a pretty tough slog at this time of night, DP!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seconded, Anony. Besides, do they (the ubiquitous "they") really think this scattergun approach - dragging in such as Maley amongst so many others - will work ?

      Delete

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