Opportunities missed ... regrets a few.
Each day the pond misses out on reptile stories which are a marvel and a wonder ... and yesterday it lost Cameron, showcasing optimism and hope, and Bruno, discovering a mystical herd immunity, and almost saddest of all, the babbaging of China ...
And today?
How sad to miss out on seeing the bouffant one offering sage advice to Albo, or miss news of McCormack being squeezed, though it raises the tricky question of how much water you can get from desiccated coconut.
But the pond does what it can, and today there was also a sweet and poignant juxtaposition ...
Naturally the pond had no interest in that Stewart chappie, whoever he might be, some """ type of the most suspicious kind, some loon the reptiles couldn't be bothered finding a photo for, all he deserved really, what with his alleged remarkable discovery that hydroxychlooroquine might not work. Who knew? Doesn't he understand that the Donald never gives up hope ...
We have since moved on to the My Pillow guy's oleandrin, which the pond understands is Jesus and God Herself approved, and since then, there's been a major breakthrough, though some think it not so major, and personally the pond still has hopes for injecting bleach ...
And so naturally of all the countries on the planet, the Caterist had to pick the one run by the Donald as some kind of exemplar ...
It's lucky the Caterist's institute still picks up a handsome government grant, because who else would fund this sort of tosh?
How nice it is to roam in the field, and strawberry pick the data ...
Of course if you were actually just to look at the entirety of the mess that the United States is currently in, you might think twice ...
Much of the world doesn't want to know about the hapless Yanks ...
As of August 3, destinations open to U.S. visitors include Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Cambodia, Croatia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, French Polynesia, Ireland, Jamaica, the Maldives, Mexico, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia, Sint Maarten, Sri Lanka, St. Barts, St. Martin, Tanzania, Turkey, Turks and Caicos, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates (but only Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah), the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dominica is expected to start welcoming Americans on August 7, and Belize follows suit on August 15.
But entry isn’t necessarily easy. While some of these destinations simply screen for symptoms of COVID-19, others require a two-week quarantine or proof of a negative test result. Be sure to check requirements before making any future plans. (here)
Ah Brazil, peak virus season, too, just the right time for a visit, so why not hop on a plane with the Caterist?
Meanwhile, just to brood a little more about the United States as a model, what a mess it remains, with universities and campuses the new hot spot ...
Many outbreaks are tied to large group gatherings like parties, leading some schools to suspend students and organizations for breaking social distancing rules on and off campus.
The University of Notre Dame and the University of Alabama both have seen increases in Covid-19 cases on their campuses. Notre Dame has moved to online instruction, according to its website. Meanwhile, local and university police at the University of Alabama will partner to monitor bars, restaurants and off-campus housing to ensure the city's Covid-19 ordinances and university guidelines are followed, university President Stuart R. Bell said.
"Violations to our health and safety protocols, both on and off campus, are subject to harsh disciplinary action, up to and including suspension from UA," Bell wrote in a letter to the campus community on Sunday. (here)
But, billy goat, butt, freedom cries the Caterist, death before tyranny! At least you should read a few books, get your degree, and spread contagion, it's your youthful duty ...
It's true, that talk of acceptable prices. Whenever the pond considers an acceptable price, measured in the deaths of others, it gets out the scales, and does a butcher, making sure that the scales avoid the pond's own life.
The result of this weighing of acceptable prices for the maintenance of freedom?
Well, the pond would view the Caterist's death by virus with some equanimity. It would only be fair, it would be what he wanted for others, and so for himself, and yet the pond suspects, like others in well-heeled reptile land, that the Caterist takes care of himself, and keeps himself out of harm's way.
He understands that the best way to ride out the storm is to be on an expensive boat sheltering from the storm somewhere off the Connecticut coast ...
What a boat that was, what a shelter, what a way to catch the sun and cruise through the swamp ...
Apparently the Lady May is for sale at US$28 million ... handy, at least until they catch up with you ...
And so to Dame Groan, and while the pond doesn't pay as much attention to Dame Groan as it should, such was the pitiful nightmare from which she woke with a woke fright, the pond couldn't resist ...
Ah, the long march, the stuff of reptile nighmares ...
Der lange Marsch durch die Institutionen, variously attributed to Gramsci (the tykes here), and to Rudi Duschke circa 1967, wiki there ...
The pond suspects it began with the stabbing of Caesar, this wretched long march into the deep state, but never mind, Dame Groan is suffering mightily, the hairs on the back of her neck frozen in fear ...
How to conjure up this dread vision? The pond felt the need to add a little colour to Tenniel's evocation of Alice's plight ...
And truly all around Dame Groan, the cards are flying ... and what's worse, they're all young, and they're going to do all kinds of damage, even beyond Dame Groan's time on the planet, though why she should care so much, since the young always inherit the earth, or what will be left of it, is a bit of a mystery to the pond, seeing as how when you're dead, you're dead ...
Silly young people, caring about equality, and even worse, joining in with climate science alarmism, when everyone knows that at best it's just a debate, and at worst the new religion ...
Oh the tragedy of it all, with these wanton woke folk taking climate science seriously. Where will this nonsense end, who will put a stop to Dame Groan's suffering?
Luckily, as often happens with the reptiles, space is still an issue, and it was finally decided that Dame Groan's nightmare dreaming had clogged up enough arteries for the day ...
Are you not entertained? Has there ever been a better nightmare? The pond felt positively rhapsodic ... and so rapped a little ...
"You are old, Dame Groan," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"In my youth," Dame Groan replied to her son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
Pray, what is the reason of that?"
"In my youth," said the sage, as she shook her grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—
Allow me to sell you a couple."
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said Dame Groan, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my strife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?"
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said Dame Groan; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"In my youth," Dame Groan replied to her son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
Pray, what is the reason of that?"
"In my youth," said the sage, as she shook her grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—
Allow me to sell you a couple."
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said Dame Groan, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my strife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?"
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said Dame Groan; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!
And then you can begin your long march nowheres …
To a life on a horribly hot planet somewheres ...
To a life on a horribly hot planet somewheres ...
And just see if I cares about your climate science religion ...
And now with the infallible Pope back, a chance for the master to provide a gloomy echo of the Caterist ...
Just a quick observation, Chad, but today's Damely Groaning is a long, long way from "investigations of all the elements that made people productive".
ReplyDeleteThough she truly loves her Duschke/Gramsci, doesn't she - no doubt about that.
GB - bit late getting to the party today - sad excuse for ‘NBN’ at our patch - the, er, ‘spirit’ of Turnbull lives on - particularly in National Party electorates!
DeleteAnyway - My Source is most likely to send me items if they purport to be about economics. Not necessarily professional-level economics. So I had an early communication about today’s words from the Dame Groan.
The first comment followed speculation here that the Dame is now paid by the word. If that is so - then her most lucrative word must be ‘woke’. No - both the Source and I consider life is too short to count the number of times ‘woke’ appeared in this day’s stroll into the long march, but that little word must have been good for the price of a couple of coffees, even at those ruinous weekend penalty rates.
But the more trenchant comment comes from this - ‘most taxpayer-funded institutions are off on self-directed frolics based on the on-trend progressive fads.’
No doubt that reflects hours of the Dame’s time, researching every ‘taxpayer-funded institution’ - to be able to assert that ‘most’ are doing what the Dame says (and, naturally, that includes think tanks, such as the Menzies Research Centre). The depth of that research is shown by the precision in the definition ‘frolics based on the on-trend progressive fads.’ That needs no further examples by way of illustration, because, depending on the day and the audience - it can mean whatever the Flagship reader wants to make of it, sitting in the back room, beside the wireless that no longer gives out hours of ‘Jonesy’ to fill in the mornings.
Perhaps the Dame has been assisted by the newly ennobled ‘Investigations Editor’. The Source shares my amusement over the titles that are bestowed on writers for Limited News. I won’t play the ‘anyone want to guess who is the Investigations Editor for Limited News?’ - it is Sharri Markson. As far as I know, the first sighting of that title came today, for her frightener that those perfidious Chinese were offering money, and facilities, to entice Australians to transfer all sorts of information, critical to national defence, to the Red Hordes - Only be sure always to call it please “research” (thank you Tom Lehrer - still with us at 92)
In the tight hierarchy of Limited News, would a ‘Contributing Economics Editor’ have to defer to an ‘Investigations Editor’, particularly when the latter, in turn, contributes jointly with the ‘National Chief of Staff’; one Kylar Loussikian, whose c.v lists working for other publishers of news, and who seems to be demonstrating that some rats will swim towards a sinking ship.
Is it still the old dodge, Chad: if you give 'em a title, you don't have to give 'em a raise ? If so, then Sharri must be glowing in the dark. Groanie is already showing the refined shine of righteousness, of course. But truly, it's a wonderful demonstration of the "quality" of the audience they are writing for - though in Sharri's case it's a "quality" she fully shares with her audience. And with some other reptiles, apparently - Loussikian ?
DeleteYeah, nice that Tom Lehrer is still with us - I've been a fan (still have digital captures of all of his CDs) for quite a few decades. Who can ever forget 'Pollution' - still as true today as it was then (1965).
FWIW: Since I use Mozilla Firefox, counting words is fairly simple: Ctrl-F brings up a field down in the bottom left that allows me to type in a string - eg 'woke' - and Firefox then finds every occurrence of that string on the page you're positioned on and then takes you to the first occurrence and signals 1 of n matches on the bottom line. So unless there's a lot of extraneous appearances of the string/word, you basically have a count. Unfortunately though, it can't process the images that DP inserts, you have to be on a page which is displaying actual text.
I dunno, but I imagine that Windows Internet Explorer and Google Chrome probably have some kind of equivalent facility.
GB - thanks for the clue on counting specific words - The Source will have seen that, and I leave it to her judgement, she being the one who brings up the actual words.
DeleteSurely Chadders, you should have spoken up for "long march" itself. If the pond had a buck for every time it's seen "long march" in a reptile column, it would have purchased the Opera House by now ...
DeleteDame Slap is happy to start the snark, so that makes her a target. Her grasp of history may be better than that of Dr van Diemen (or the Prime Minister for that matter), but she doesn't do too well on clear expression. Scope of co-ordination is a trap for all of us, and I'm sure that DS did not intend to say that universities taught students about the evils of all the topics in the list - but that's a very possible reading. Easily fixed if you are paying attention to what you are writing........ I am intrigued to learn more about the evils of etc. though.
ReplyDelete"the evils of capitalism, colonialism, racism, women's rights, inequality, diversity, multi-culturalsim, globalism, intersec-tionality, climate change etc."
And the Human Rights Commission has commissioners pursuing personal agendas? Oh that would be the issuing of invitations to party political fundraisers from official email accounts. I suppose.
With the possible exception of etc, those items would all seem worth addressing.
DeleteDame Slap seems to think that their very mention would set jowls wobbling and bony knuckles clenching but they don't seem to cause any anxiety amongst the people I talk to. Oddly enough, common subjects of discussion include a deadly virus, the orange buffoon across the Pacific , climate change or the general idiocy of government. I cannot recall anyone, ever, using the term 'woke'.
CA's link yesterday reminded me of many other things worth worrying about like the various conditions buried in FTAs not to mention the whole business of a society run by business solely in the interest of business.
Oh - I should add, all those woke guys at the ATO, Treasury and the Productivity Commission - hahahahahahahahah!
DeleteI wonder why she didn't just say "teach you about the evils that accompany everything the human race ever does" or summat like that.
DeletePS: it's Dame Groan today; Dame Slap is JanetfromIPA.
To be fair, BF, it's very hard to pick the dums from the dees, and the peas in the lizard Oz pod ...
Delete