Today was the day when the pond realised the reptiles needed a break, or the pond needed to rest, or something had to give, because the sheer tedium on offer suggested that the virus had finally broken the commentary section of the lizard Oz …
Pandemic pain on pause? Only in the delusional world of the reptiles ...
Almost in desperation the pond thought for a nanosecond of turning literary critic …
Genocide is the reason some people didn't think much of Robert Hughes after his car crash? How about driving on the wrong side of the road, and bringing on a bigly prang? That'd be enough for the pond …
So that venture into criticism didn't last long, especially as the pond isn't a fan of Carey's writing anyway, though his elaborately defensive theory, dragging in genocide, helped explain why … more useless frills, conceits and elaborations than Victorian or Gothic architecture …
But oh how the pickings were slim, and that explains why the oscillating fan came to be - so far as the pond can recall - for the first time ever at the top of the page …
Right from the get go, the fan was in blame game mode, no doubt to our Gracie's despair, should she ever stumble on the piece …
Pond rule one: as soon as a reptile starts scribbling that ideology and ideological fervour should stay out of the picture, the sooner that ideology and ideological fervour, and a good bashing of comrade Dan will enter the picture...
It's pretty thin stuff, and the surest sign that even the reptiles knew it lacked weight, and might blow off in the slightest breeze of a kind only an oscillating fan can produce, was the way photos had been dragged in to make the story bulk up a little ...
Yes, there you go - more photos to bulk it up, and then a demonstration of how to keep talk of ideology out of the discussion: "those failures are ideological."
The pond has always thought of the fan as a fatuous fop of the most foolish kind - his status as an academic is evidence of the decline and fall of tertiary institutions in Australia.
As for the fan's device of asking rhetorical questions, it's at the very top of the pond's hate list.
Will the foolish, fatuous fop provide answers? Will the vacillating, oscillating fop take a stand? Will the wagon hurtle over a cliff and the dynamite go off, and will we only learn what happens in next week's cliffhanger Saturday matinee serial episode? Does anyone care? If the pond doesn't give a flying fuck, should anyone else?
What a load of speculative, loaded, ideology-laden hot air …
How the pond yearned for an infallible Pope which might bring a decent bit of ideology into the discussion ... …
Ah, a movie reference.
Well there's a relief, and just as well, because it's on to the next onerous chore … and this one is worse than a week in Dante's Inferno ...
Ye ancient cats and hounds, the stench from "Ned's" hagiographical tome "The March of Patriots" has pervaded the house, and no amount of perfume can quell it, and now the pond must endure more of the same? Beware street libraries, and cast-offs in general … there's no such thing as a free lunch or a free book, at least not if it's "Ned". There's always a price to pay ...
Sorry, he pond quite nodded off after the first par, and was only brought back to life by spotting a Rowe, with more Rowe-spotting to be done here …
Ah that's better, doesn't a single Rowe picture say more than a squillion "Ned" words, but still he blathers on, offering significance, unmistakeable messages, and irrelevant laments, because "Ned" loves his abject pandering and hypocrisy ...
It's not often the pond says this, but at least the Donald deciding to wear a mask as the act of a patriot is wonderfully entertaining, and the contortions of freedom lovers and Trumpians to follow the latest flip at least provides a distraction from the horrors … much better than the usual US policymaker response …
Well there Donald's back to doing comedy briefings, that should fix things, and it's just as well, because there's nothing to see here, except for "Ned" doing a tremendous suck, and what can the pond do, in an oscillating fan rhetorical way, but apologise for having to run with this load of portentous twaddle?
Thank the long absent lord that's over. When will the tedious old fart recognise that time is up, and the game is over? When will someone tap him on his shoulder and send him on his way with a gold watch and a plaque for the world's most tedious, solemn, hagiographical scribbling?
Why has the pond turned into rhetorical question mode? Is the baleful influence of the oscillating fan impossible to shake?
And so to an even more wretched duty …
Sure the reptiles have honoured Dame Slap with a cult meisterwerk by the cult master… but the pond could write this IPA drivel in its sleep.
Union super schemes two legged bad, take out your money and hide it under the bed, and then see what happens when you try to get a pension in old age … a shock a number of sheltered Australians are soon going to encounter, when they come up hard against the mind-numbing realities of the federal government's caring job-seeker programs, as administered by clueless bureaucrats grateful they have a job torturing powerless people, and sending them off to the private sector to be screwed by the likes of former Chairman Rudd's partner …
Before beginning this particular Slappian IPA Gina's mob litany, the pond paused again to wonder why Dame Slap never scribbles these days about the Donald and the United States and all that's going on there … say Portland, for starters …
No, not that one, though how the pond misses Portlandia. It wasn't a great show, but it always reminded the pond of good days in Adelaide … and sometimes Melbourne and the baths and the markets ...
No, this one, this Portland ...
Great snaps, and that one with the flag truly eerie, but these days Dame Slap has given up donning the MAGA hat and settled down to IPA duties ...
Is there a richness to Dame Slap calling out crony capitalism? Is there an irony in unions doing super better than the private sector? Is there no end to the pissed-off resentment of Gina's mob? Why the fuck did the oscillating fan introduce the pond to rhetorical questions?
How on earth could the pond do a segue to another Rowe cartoon? Why bother with a segue, why not just do it?
But now it's back to more union bashing and seething resentment by Gina's mob ...
And what will happen when people without super turn, in their dotage, to the public system to give them a pension?
Well even the rhetorical oscillating fan probably doesn't know what it's like to apply for a pension - the pond was once warned by a solemn bureaucrat to begin planning the paperwork six months before there might need to be any cash in the paw … but here, have another cartoon to remind you of H. G. Wells, and socialism, and at least for a time the Fabian Society … and class and all the rest of that Wellsian rag…
Yes, the pond is bored out of its brain, but please do at least pause to note the conflation of the public and private super offerings … typical of the work of Gina's mob …
Pond rule 2: don't ever grow old in Dame Slap's Gina's mob world. Stay young enough to bring in some money …and if you can't do that, have you ever thought about just going away and quietly dying in poverty?
Of course it's even worse in Dame Slap's MAGA-cap wearing United States …the pond recently spent time with an old New Yorker story about poverty and dollar stores, and luckily you can find it outside the paywall at ProPublica here …
If Gina's mob had their way, we'd end up in the same place in due course …and all the pond can say is beware the girl on the swing, though it seems that the immortal Rowe had the same idea …
Ah, at least there's a chance to do a reference, and remind readers of Dame Slap's conspicuous ongoing refusal to celebrate her donning of the MAGA cap … look how she soars through the air in her frivolous way, promising a future without super, and then, so the logic followed, as those bludgers refused to save, a future with gruel for a pension … and a dollar store nearby ...
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDelete“Liberal senator Andrew Bragg’s new book Bad Egg. How to Fix Super...”
The reptiles never fail to throw in a bit of cross-promotion for their fellow scaly brethren.
The new book is of course published by the IPA’s favourite vanity publisher;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connor_Court_Publishing
And the good senator himself achieved political glory by that well worn path of joining the MRC.
He even managed to become a ‘Grand Commander in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia Order’s of Christ-loving’ for services rendered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bragg
DiddyWrote
Thank you DW. Connor Court does a public service; if you think a book might be worth the price, and, more importantly, your time - check the publisher. If it is Connor Court - save both money and time. Their site currently promoting Bragg with Donnelly, Lyle Shelton, and the apparently definitive collection of speeches by Abbott. Although as Dorothy has observed - any of this could be coming to a street library near you.
DeleteChadwick
He's pretty much a nothing-much nonentity then, DW. Took him a while to eventually sneak into preselection for a Senate seat.
DeleteBut do you reckon enough copies of his "book" will be sold, Chad, for some to actually make it into a street library ?
GB - my observation from having to be around the nonentities of Parliaments was that many members did not expect sales to cover the cost of their publications. Their manifestos were to be pressed onto other members of either House - and of any party. They were also useful to be bestowed on schools in the electorate when the Great One presented the prizes at speech day, or otherwise graced a school. Ditto every second organisation that had to settle for the mediocre member in the hope that that would add éclat to their AGM, or - whatever.
DeleteI assume there was a way to use the 'allowance' to cover the significant cost of printing those works, although that may be of more recent time. I once shared a platform at a conference with (the Modest Member) Bert Kelly. We had interesting chat over a couple of drinks later, and he cited one of his books a couple of times. I showed interest, he just happened to have a copy with him - pen poised to write me a 'dedication' - 'that will be $8.70, thank you'. So I asked him to put my father's name there - birthday present.
Just for the record - Kelly has been taken up by the 'Quadrant' et.al. crowd, in ways that, I suspect, would surprise him.
Chadwick
Covers a whole world that I mostly wot not of, Chad. But yes, I can see that many unsolicited publications could end up out on the street - either in or out of recycle bins. And now that you mention such things, I can recall winning a book as a prize in high school which I immediately junked unread.
DeleteThen again, I can recall something to the effect that only a small percentage of 'dead tree' books ever cover their production, marketing and distribution costs, so maybe $8.70 - hand delivered by the author - is really a bargain. I trust your father appreciated his birthday gift.
The book purchase totally had me laughing.....too funny! I noted Bert Kelly played for Congupna FC.
DeleteA few distant memories of the Drum and Woods clans and Congupna. Small world sometimes.
As GB says...$8.70 hand delivered is a bit of a bargain! Cheers.
CA.
"the pond recently spent time with an old New Yorker story about poverty and dollar stores"
ReplyDeleteIt's truly stupefying how several different 'nations' can survive in one geographical location, albeit a large one, and under one - at least nominally - politico-legal system. Mainly, I suppose because the 'homelands' are disjoint - eg St Louis is quite distinct from other 'fiefdoms' in the USA - and because the one set of 'formal' laws is actually many sets of somewhat different 'practiced' laws in different localities.
I don't think we have many real 'Dollar store' territories in Australia: a few, I reckon, but we just don't seem to have the same proliferation of third world localities - you can't really run a Dollar store in a country town of 100 people. So the local variations - 'Two dollar' stores and Reject shops - in Australia have never proliferated to anywhere near the extent that Dollar stores - which have spread like a rampant virus - have in the USA.
The USA did have, however, the 'Five and Dime' stores for quite a long while though I think they mostly faded away in the post WWII general prosperity. A comparison between them and the now 'Dollar stores' might have been illuminating - especially in respect of the crime scene.
I have to say though, that the general ennui got to me today nearly as much as it got to you, DP. Couldn't think of anything I wanted to say about the Oscillating Fan, and I couldn't think of anything he said that I'd wanted to read. But that's par for his course.
ReplyDeleteHowever, just this one thing from Nullius Ned: "The ethos is that Australia must learn to live and work with COVID-19 but not abandon hope." Does anybody think that Ned could ever grasp that no matter how much we may want to "live and work with COVID-19" it just may not let us ? Like the publicly estimated 614,000 (approximately) of people who would probably have loved to "live and work with COVID-19" but it just killed them off anyway.
As for Dame Slap, she has turned into an appalling little self-repeating tout for 'Gina's mob' hasn't she.
I'm pretty sure you are right about Ned, he doesn't understand what we are dealing with here.
DeleteThe question is, why do some older folk develop this attitude that you can manage problems by just looking away? You would think that a long life would teach you that things are never quite as under control as you hope and that even with detailed planning things still go tits-up all the time.
Is it because experts and elites organise all the important things for them so they can devote themselves exclusively to doddering and giving poor advice to anyone who will listen?
Just as an aside, I came across this:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/larry-householder-ohio-house-speaker-arrested-bribery-case/
This must be Angus' long lost American cousin.
I dunno, Bef, the older I get the more I understand the proposition that if you are powerless to fix problems it's best not to notice them. At least you don't feel quite so helpless that way.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless one shouldn't show off a complete lack of understanding like Ned does.
Great comment GB....although some things are hard to ignore, as much as you try..the example of the Slap a case in point. She is an ignorant clueless piece of work.
Deleteeg. On Monday morning we lost a close friend of 50 years. He had a strong business, but ..a hopeless gambling addiction and unfortunately little superannuation......but he managed to tap it for the $20K quick smart. He has sadly left a mess for his wife and two girls.....and $20K less for them.
Albrechtsen is so removed from the workers in the real world that you could not make it up. It’s one thing being a raving ideologue......but a fool and a blind fully detached ideologue together is a sad feat only she could achieve. Cheers.
CA.
Always sad to encounter situations like that, CA. And not much you can do about it either, I'd guess. But sometimes it's just 'better a horrible end than horror without end'.
DeleteAnd there may even be some thoughts along that line entering into the COVID-19 situation - just hopefully not quite so callously unfeeling as Killer Creighton would thrust upon us (but not upon himself, of course).
Wise words Kemosabi.....”But sometimes it's just 'better a horrible end than horror without end.”
ReplyDeleteThat was where the poor bugger was. The correlation between addiction and depression is well known and his number was on the ticket for a long time, sadly. For a bloke with an address book two inches thick......and a funeral for ten, the timing is painful. The era of our childhoods. We went back that far ......his old man’s TAB account only had 3 digits. :))
https://youtu.be/SAIh8fH0cbU
So many things in this world I've never heard, or even heard of, and Adam Gibson and the Aerial Maps is one of them. Beautifully done, so thanks for that.
Delete