Now that she's back, the pond just had to find out what Dame Slap had been doing for her hols …
Turns out it was Canada, and being Dame Slap, when she visits a country like Canada, her natural instinct is to drop a bucket load of shit on it.
It's true she likes to drop a bucket load of shit on most things - though strangely she never finds it in her heart to head off to Donald's United States and drop shit on it - and all the pond could think by the end of the read was how lucky the New Zealanders were that she decided to fly over them, like a Paul Keating on the way to Paris to check out the clocks …
As for the content, it's just the usual Dame Slap, and is regurgitated here for the record …
The pond has been more Freudian than usual of late - though it's arguable the mind of Polonius would defeat Sherlock Holmes, let alone a shrink - but here's another typical wrinkle, a lawyer so imbued with so much hate, fear and loathing of lawyers that you wonder if some cruel prankster joking about "first kill all the lawyers" made her go loony in her youth.
Self-hatred makes it into its own wiki listing here …
Self-hatred is a pejorative characterization of persons who are judged to hold members of their apparent identity group to a higher standard of behavior than those not in that social group.
The pond could go on dabbling, as here …
You are miserable and you know it’s someone’s fault, but you have no idea that it’s you who oppresses you. Therapists are enraging because they talk about conflict resolution when you think what’s needed is a revolution. When therapists tell you to modulate the anger that is wrecking your life, you hear an aristocrat telling the poor to be patient.
It's clear enough what's prompted Dame Slap's anger. Canadians and lawyers, lawyers and Canadians, do gooders and other riff raff who don't have the boondoggle of making a motza laying out all that anger for the delectation of lizard Oz readers ...
The funny thing - apart from all this blather about Canadians - is the way that Dame Slap seems to put her trust in politicians.
Truth to tell, the pond has never had much time for pollies, and if it came to the crunch, the pond would probably find the Canadian culture and lifestyle a little more relaxing than the United States, at least before freezing to death, or nodding off from boredom …
Still, if you want excitement and entertainment, you can always find conflict and guns south of the border, down Washington way …
It's when Dame Slap gets to blathering about a court assuming the role of philosopher king that the pond wonders what happened to the MAGA hat she donned, as she swanned out into the night in New York to celebrate the arrival of the Donald …
Have the Canadians managed to produce anything approaching the assorted current disasters in the American political system?
Apparently so ...
When ever anyone scribbles about the "will of the people", the pond reaches for its Glock, though probably a Luger should be the preferred weapon. As for "activist judges" - is anyone else as tired of the concept as the pond, which seems to work on the assumption that the only activism that motivates Brett Kavanaugh is cracking another tinnie ...
"The will of the people" is one of those mystical terms that only a majority of politicians who stay in line with Dame Slap's thinking are apparently able to channel and enact ...
"There is a reason the Americans call it an end-run around democracy …"?
If you want to read a transcript of the American Bill of Rights, it's here with assorted other documents…
It's no big deal, it's no biggie, lots of countries have bills of rights, and some of the more comical countries, of the Chinese kind, have constitutions which guarantee political rights, while the Philippines' Bill of Rights mandates that people can be gunned down in cold blood if they look the wrong way, and irritate the President …
In all this, Canada seems a mild case, and not the cause for Dame Slap's usual ranting hysteria, and bilious spleen …
But the pond realises it's all psychological, and any Bill of Rights can be over-ridden by decent ratings and a good show …
By the end of it all, the pond began to feel a deep sympathy for Canada … and remember that talk of New Zealunders dodging a bullet?
In your dreams, Kiwis, you're just as bad as Canadians. You really need to get MNZGA going if you want to redeem yourselves in Dame Slap's eyes ...
As for the "will of the people", as surveyed here …
Still, mustn't agitate the fundamentalist tykes and Opus Dei types that litter the pages of the Catholic Boys' (and occasionally Girls if they know their place) Daily ...
And with that, here, have another cartoon, and celebrate what a Bill of Rights can do for you …
Quite a rant by Dame Slap. Nothing at all unusual about that, of course, but it seems that we all fall at "the most fundamental hurdle: the one about who should make laws in a democracy."
ReplyDeleteTruly a vexed question, isn't it. As Dame Slap so innocuously puts it: "Should it be the Australian people ? Or a handful of judges empowered by a bill or a charter of rights and egged on by lawyers in search of work and other impatient activists ?"
Now I have to say that I've lived in this "democracy" all my life and I've never even come close to making a law. Have you ? But then we get to the true nub, the part that's really got her going: "These people weren't free-speech fans when it came to repealing section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act."
So there we have it, just another item in the wingnut catechism of Things To Endlessly Carry On About And Blame The Left For.
Poor, poor Dame Slap. She's come back from her hols in a foul mood.
ReplyDeleteI kind of like the idea of this little black duck's will being led by judges. I'd sooner trust my future to an unelected judge than a politician - any day. And since when is a law ineffective just because it has never been used? You call that proof?
Dame Slap is qualified and used to practise as a lawyer, right? Seems to me some 'activist' judge must have ticked her off something bad early in her career. She sure does bear a deep hatred of, and animosity towards, the judiciary.
Just to give Dame Slap full credit, Merc, here's a short extract from wikipedia about her career:
Delete"Albrechtsen moved to Sydney to work as a commercial solicitor at Freehills and taught at the University of Sydney Law School. Since turning to commentary, Albrechtsen has written for the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age, Quadrant, Canada's National Post, The Vancouver Sun, The Wall Street Journal and The Wall Street Journal Asia. She regularly appears on television and radio.
Albrechtsen was a member of the Foreign Affairs Council from 2003 until 2007."
Note particularly the Canadian involvement.