tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post6617083704826591691..comments2024-03-28T22:51:37.034+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which the pond spends some quality time in the herpetarium with its newest member, the honourable reptile for Warringah, as the old reptile in chief plans to step down, but not before leaving the herpetarium in ruins ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-21525669173766927672015-11-17T16:18:15.356+11:002015-11-17T16:18:15.356+11:00That beautiful LeLivere cartoon reminded me to ask...That beautiful LeLivere cartoon reminded me to ask; Did our Tones actually get to meet Charlie?<br /><br />He would've been cut to the quick if he didn't. I bet he at least asked if he could give him a knighthood before he was so cruelly taken down.<br />BilAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-28782209425552098102015-11-17T14:24:21.000+11:002015-11-17T14:24:21.000+11:00Well a few references are due to consolidate my bo...Well a few references are due to consolidate my bona fides. The Mountain climbing leader of their expedition Binder) manages to get them all to Yogistan (despite the navigator being lost on a bus in London and having to find his way by the North Star), where they attempt to hire local porters. <br /><br />Unfortunately due to a mistranslation they find they have hired 30,000 instead of 30. Chaos is guaranteed.<br /><br />Then they all fall down a crevasse, drink their sole supply of champagne, and are rescued by the Geologist with his 'two-ton pneumatic geological hammer' which unfortunately causes a few earthquakes..<br /><br />It is a marvellous excursion into British satirical absurdism. And written in 1955.<br /><br /><br /><br />.<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-73208798415828469182015-11-17T13:06:32.234+11:002015-11-17T13:06:32.234+11:00Hey - our host DP asked for something amusing.
I ...Hey - our host DP asked for something amusing.<br /><br />I recommend The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman. Said to be the funniest book in the English language, it is a masterpiece, and inspired Milligan, Monty Python and a few others. Check it out!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-62006729582724944032015-11-17T11:33:13.843+11:002015-11-17T11:33:13.843+11:00Hi Dorothy,
“Don’t talk to me of God. We killed G...Hi Dorothy,<br /><br />“Don’t talk to me of God. We killed God at Magdeburg”<br />The Captain - “The Last Valley”<br /><br />Invoking “the barbarians at the gates” shows just how far a once serious historian like Ferguson has fallen since accepting the big bucks from right wing think tanks like the Hoover Institution. If you are looking for a good analogy to the chaos, disruption,violence and religious intolerance that is convulsing Syria and much of the Middle East you don’t need to go as far back as 5th century Rome or indeed to invoke medieval attitudes - why not try The Thirty Year War (1618-1648).<br /><br />A fragmented collection of states that had once been part of a mighty empire (The Holy Roman Empire then, The unresolved remnants of the Ottoman Empire now). A population divided along religious lines (Protestants/Catholics then as opposed to Sunni/Shia now). Authoritarian rulers stamping down on civil and religious liberties (cuius religio, eius religio then, Assad’s Alawite minority control of government now). Superpowers being dragged into the building conflict (France and the Habsburgs then, Russia and the US now). A myriad of other players being inexorably drawn into the ever widening war, the Danes, the Swedes, Spain and the Dutch then, the coalition of the willing now, along with the Iranians and the Saudis). Devastation of entire regions and brutal atrocities committed by both sides. Massive loss of life and serious population dislocations.<br /><br />In the Thirty Year War the populations of the German States and the Czech lands were reduced by at least a third and in some territories the losses were as high as two-thirds. There was also an outbreak of witch hunts and thousands were burnt at the stake (so no novelty from ISIS then).<br /><br />The Sack of Magdeburg in 1630 was just one of the innumerable atrocities carried out during the Thirty Years War and is notable mainly for the sheer scale of the massacre. Of the 30,000 citizens who had risen up against the Holy Roman Emperor, only 5,000 survived that day when the Imperial soldiers ran amok. By the end of the war in 1648 only 450 people were still living in the city. That is surely a much better example of barbarism and an assault on civilisation than some hazy link to the fall of Rome but maybe the fact that the atrocity was carried out by christians against other christians makes it difficult to swallow.<br /><br />DiddyWrote<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-83378766620838084632015-11-17T11:14:38.816+11:002015-11-17T11:14:38.816+11:00Alrighty, a bumpy starter for the new Reptilian co...Alrighty, a bumpy starter for the new Reptilian columnist as the Foreign Minister puts him in his place. Not quite the start that he was looking for one assumes: <br /><br />http://www.eyretribune.com.au/story/3497151/australia-ready-to-play-its-part-in-syria-says-julie-bishop/?cs=7<br /><br />Perhaps his next column won't need to be corrected by the grown ups.via collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14342963456605644101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-66826907707179002852015-11-17T10:38:45.398+11:002015-11-17T10:38:45.398+11:00From Sheridan's witter on 774 this am, there&#...From Sheridan's witter on 774 this am, there's a lightness of step among those who whisper to PMs various and past. Not a hint of the despair that sane people get on staring into the abyss. No, none of that. The strut is on, but the words haven't escaped the lips, yet. Who will go first? That whispering in the heart, desperate to come out in a blood-curdling shriek. It's "Go nucelar, GO NUKE! Yeeeee-harrrr!". <br />That's the only answer to the question "How, then?" from Policeman Solverson.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08158673564017581517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-89504409332625050692015-11-17T10:21:40.349+11:002015-11-17T10:21:40.349+11:00Indeed Joe. And who is funding them?
http://www....Indeed Joe. And who is funding them?<br /><br />http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html<br /><br />http://egyptianstreets.com/2015/05/11/what-keeps-isis-running-the-funding-and-support-of-a-terror-organization/<br /><br />http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29004253<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-19400584071426366652015-11-17T10:05:38.232+11:002015-11-17T10:05:38.232+11:00The origins of ISIS are not even in dispute. The W... <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/11/15/exploiting-emotions-about-paris-to-blame-snowden-distract-from-actual-culprits-who-empowered-isis/" rel="nofollow">The origins of ISIS are not even in dispute. The Washington Post put it simply: “almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes.”</a>Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00808416744757194189noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-41081852884592547582015-11-17T08:29:14.611+11:002015-11-17T08:29:14.611+11:00I see that La Vitriole is determined to cement her...I see that La Vitriole is determined to cement her reputation. Not content with mistaking a sewer vent for a war memorial, and confusing channel 7's identifier for viewer figures, she now accuses a Sikh of being a Muslim.<br /><br />IQ tests for 'journalists'? No that would see the closure of the Herpetarium, and where would we be for entertainment then?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com