Chris Berg, and your ABC? Because I'm finding it hard to see how it's my ABC ...

(Above: Miranda Devine. Is that a smirk, or are you just pleased to embrace my contradictions?)

... look, I'm really - I'm not a Green. You know, I haven't gone - I'm not an extremist like they are.

Miranda the Devine on Q&A here

... it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies.

Miranda the Devine here

... no one is dying from climate change.

Miranda the Devine on the same Q&A

LACHLAN HARRIS: What I mean is I don't accept the argument that, you know, just because, well, the world hasn't acted - John Howard himself in 2007 said the benefits of acting first outweigh the cost of acting, even if the rest of the world doesn't act. That was John Howard.

MIRANDA DEVINE: Well, that's ridiculous. Well, he's not the - you know, he's not God. He's not all-knowing. (on the same Q&A)

... the most successful politician in Australia's recent memory, John Howard, made no such mistake... (in relation to environmentalism)

.... Remember how he took off his jacket and leaped on stage with all those Labor Tasmanian foresters just before he won the 2004 election?

... Howard's autobiography Lazarus Rising is full of such wisdom.

It should be the handbook for any political party seeking voter approval on genuine issues, rather than sideshows in Mexican resorts. (Miranda Devine here)

Sorry John, sic transit gloria. Full of wisdom one moment, the next just a loud gong or a clashing cymbal or perhaps a fallen heathen idol.

Or perhaps Miranda the Devine is just following Walt Whitman. Be big enough to embrace your contradictions.

Here at the pond of course we've never thought of hanging as extreme. Truth to tell whipping's not good enough to bring the average reprobate into line, and stoning is a tad messy, whereas hanging is a nice exemplar of colonial British justice.

Meanwhile, we thought we might visit the ABC as a change of air, in much the same way that Victorian poets took a trip to the Lakes district to observe the cardigan wearers.

Isn't it wonderful the way the ABC's current affairs department continues to elevate the tone of the political debate? Last night we had Lateline presenting the thoughts of the moustachioed John Bolton in Bolton: Obama can not make hard decisions.

Okay, the ABC doesn't have the clout to get Obama on the line, but Bolton's opinions were routinely predictable Obama bashing, until this gem arose thanks to Craig McMurtrie:

CRAIG MCMURTRIE: The conservative former Bush advisor, who's contemplating a 2012 presidential run ...

Gee that makes him a genuine hard hitting leading heavyweight contender.

Which leads us to wonder when the ABC will interview us because we're contemplating a 2012 run for the job of Mrs Santa Claus ... (and if you want to contemplate the spectacle of Bolton making such a run, the Atlantic Wire collected a few samples back in September 2010, here, wherein you will find even George W saying that Bolton is 'not credible').

Indeed, the ABC has lately become the home of many a supporter of western civilisation. Dash off to The Drum Unleashed and you can find Chris Berg stirring the possum with West's history not complete without reference to Christianity.

Poor Mr Berg gets himself tangled in all kinds of knots as he tries to establish the importance of Christianity while not wanting to sound too Christian:

This secular defence of Christianity should not be taken too far.

While liberal democracy was conceived in a Christian framework, one obviously need not be Christian to be part of liberal democracy.

We're looking forward to an earnest explanation of the need to teach the joys of man boy love in ancient Sparta, (per the wiki Pederasty in ancient Greece), along with a robust defence of its historical relevance:

While liberal democracy was conceived in an ancient Greek pederast framework, one obviously need not be a pederast to be part of liberal democracy.

But at least Berg proves his point about the need for some decent history teachers in our secular schools.

If Berg can point to just one Christian helping frame the notion of democracy way back when in the times of the ancient Greeks - some four centuries before Christ was born - he's a better historian than me Gunga Din.

Happily the BBC, in its thoroughly British way, provides an introductory look by Paul Cartledge at The Democratic Experiment.

The ancient Greek word demokratia was ambiguous. It meant literally 'people-power'. But who were the people to whom the power belonged? Was it all the people - the 'masses'? Or only some of the people - the duly qualified citizens? The Greek word demos could mean either. There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors. If this theory is right, democracy must originally have meant something like 'mob rule' or 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

We also look forward to Mr Berg's pleading for a week devoted to reviving the memories of ancient Greek and Roman myths, and an extensive study of the role sundry gods and goddesses had to play. At least then students might understand how every month we have sundry pagans contributing to the markers of our lives, like Augustus, Maia, Mars, Julius, and other signs and portents of the early Roman calendar ... (calendar name origins).

A class on the way the Christian imperium tries to take the credit for everything - from liberal democracy to the celebration of Xmas, or more properly dies natalis solis invicti - would be a bonus ...

Don't think that Berg, who is a research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs, attempts to eradicate the ancient Greeks from the notion of democracy just once. Earlier in his piece, he sagely advises:

Almost all thinkers in the formative centuries of Western liberal democracy were convinced (or simply assumed) there was a God, and He was a Christian God. The non-theist exceptions were… exceptional.

Yes bugger off ancient Greeks. You might have invented the word, perhaps the brand, but your wretched polytheism is beyond the pale. When the formative western liberal thinkers got down to it, the cheap knock offs flooded the philosophical two dollar stores, and there wasn't a place for you at the stables ...

Trust Cartledge at the BBC to miss the point entirely:

The architects of the first democracies of the modern era, post-revolutionary France and the United States, claimed a line of descent from classical Greek demokratia - 'government of the people by the people for the people', as Abraham Lincoln put it.

But Abe, Abe old buddy, what about all the formative thinkers hanging about who owed it all to their Christian god? Or is this a way of telling us that the ancient Greeks were Christians in disguise, just waiting for the messiah to arrive? In much the same way no doubt as the citizens currently await with bated breath the ascendancy of John Bolton ...

There's plenty more to get agitated about in Berg's ability to see through a glass darkly and without any understanding of Athenian democracy and its import throughout the ages, but time is pressing, and we must rush off to another participant in The Drum, one Kevin Donnelly, beating the gong Only the demise of independent schools will please Gillard's educrats.

When you get down to the nub of it, Donnelly makes a poignant moving plea for the right of Exclusive Brethren schools and schools based on scientological principles and schools offering creationism (or intelligent design) as part of their science program to just get on with it, paws stuffed into the honey pot proffered by taxpayers, without a by your leave or any interference:

Not only are non-government schools in danger of losing funding as a result of the Gonski review but, there is also the threat of losing their autonomy and being micromanaged by government and government appointed educrats committed to their demise.

Yep, get on with it non-government schools, keep peddling your outrageous malarkey at taxpayers' expense, keep those scientological and creationist thoughts flowing, because Kevin Donnelly's got your back ...

Indeed it seems Donnelly now infests the ABC in the same way as I'm having trouble with the cockies in the kitchen, because he lobs up again in Social conservative Julia: which is the real one now?

Given that the proposed ALP-inspired national history and English curriculum (compulsory for all Australian schools across the years kindergarten to Year 10) fails to make any mention of the Bible or its impact on Western literature, one has to wonder how fair dinkum the Prime Minister is ...

And yet you know, amazingly, because this was a long time ago, in the English and history curriculums under which I studied, there was a singular failure to make any mention of the Bible or its impact on Western literature ...

Sure I read the King James version in full at a tender age, but that's because, free of the shackles of Catholic education and the wretched Catholic translations, it seemed a bold thing to do. Reading the bible is an essential first step towards atheism, what with all the fairy stories dressed up as miracles. And if nothing else the King James version is a fine bit of literature.

But in none of the English or history classes (or the after hours honours portions of those classes) was the bible mentioned in any major way, even in relation to the main object of study, which in those days was Shakespeare (with sundry novelists coming up behind). Not that Shakespeare had anything to do with the KJ version - an old furphy - but he did reference the bible.

It's just that religion was perceived as something taught in the home according to personal precepts, and in schools, the plays were given a secular perspective ...

Strange, but of course Donnelly really doesn't give a stuff about the way things were, and how secular education was once taught, because he's too busy bashing Gillard, leftists, and cultural leftists talking about victim groups, a fine way to hide his constant blather about how Christians are victims ...

Meanwhile, if you're interested in further reading on Mr Donnelly, can we recommend this little piece from the Western Australian Hansard, here in pdf form:

When he was in WA in 2000, he was working as the Asia-Pacific consultant for the tobacco giant Philip Morris. He was promoting the Iíve Got the Power program in primary and junior high schools. He met with students while promoting this program in an outcomes-based format. I have that outcomes-based format with the major learning outcomes and the overarching statements. The member may like to look at it.

We have gone from 2000 when Dr Kevin Donnelly, the independent education expert, absolutely loved outcomes-based education while working for tobacco giant Philip Morris, to his being a very, very strong critic of outcomes-based education in more recent times. I would love to ask the independent education expert, Dr Donnelly, what has happened in between. In 2000, health experts actually warned the then Minister for Education, Colin Barnett, that the Iíve Got the Power program would encourage children to smoke. Minister Barnett ran him out of town, as did every other state and territory minister around this country. Yet Dr Kevin Donnelly is back in WA.

And now he's in The Drum Unleashed, smiting mightily at the leftists around him.

It reminds me, that whenever someone tells me it's 'my ABC', or 'your ABC', I look at them as if they're dreaming ...

And now to complete a very rare visit to the ABC - Gerard Henderson spends much more time watching - it would be remiss not to mention the way Q&A scandalously mistreated Christopher Pyne, as noted by Crikey in Aunty apologises to Pyne - again - over offensive Q&A tweet.

Frankly it's a scandal and shocking, especially given Pyne's support of gay causes over the years. According to the Australian Marriage Equality site, here, Pyne once offered these wise caring words to the gay community:

"I don't favour recognition for civil unions because I think marriage is a heterosexual construct, and I doubt it would be popular amongst homosexual couples, given that it's not a homosexual concept. I think there are some things that are heterosexual and some things that are homosexual concepts, and marriage is really a heterosexual concept. I can't see the logic in allowing same-sex couples to marry when it's not really logical."

And I guess it would be totally remiss if we failed to mention the mincing poodle's (Julia Gillard's most unfortunate and regrettable evocation of Pyne) most recent contribution to the climate debate, as outlined in Pyne alone hears Holocaust allusion.

I really feel the need to top and tail this droll piece by Tony Wright:

Here's the top:

Pity Harry Jenkins. Asked to adjudicate on the charge that Julia Gillard was clandestinely trying to equate Tony Abbott with the wickedness of a Holocaust denier, Harry looked as if he was trapped in a Grimms fairytale.

And here's the tail:

Mr Pyne protested. ''I make the connection between climate change denier and Holocaust denier.''

Mr Jenkins told MPs to ''take a deep breath and behave in a manner that those that observe us from outside would expect''.

His plea was, of course, denied.

Yep, there's nothing like denying denialists the dignity of being able to deny their denialism ...

But since we're deeply involved in education today, what actually does 'deny' mean?

• declare untrue; contradict; "He denied the allegations"; "She denied that she had taken money"
• refuse to accept or believe; "He denied his fatal illness"
• refuse to grant, as of a petition or request; "The dean denied the students' request for more physics courses"; "the prisoners were denied the right to exercise for more than 2 hours a day"
• refuse to let have; "She denies me every pleasure"; "he denies her her weekly allowance"
• deny oneself (something); restrain, especially from indulging in some pleasure; "She denied herself wine and spirits"
• traverse: deny formally (an allegation of fact by the opposing party) in a legal suit
• refuse to recognize or acknowledge; "Peter denied Jesus" (more here).

1984 and the fate of Winston Smith is one of the favourite morality tales of the conservative clan, which is why they're so adept at the abuse of the English language and Ministry of Truth insights, and why they simply refuse to accept that deny means to deny, as in refuse to recognise or acknowledge.

Never mind. In much the same way as Peter denied knowing Jesus three times with increasing intensity, and well before the rooster crowed, we might well say that the likes of Dr Dennis Jensen and Nick Minchin have denied climate change a hundred fold ...

Oh wait, I've just used a biblical metaphor. Curse you, Chris Berg, damn you to hell, Christians 1, loon pond 0 ...

(Below: and now for that misplaced tweet, which we only show to deplore and denounce, as we deplore so much at the ABC. In much the same way as we vigorously deplored Marieke Hardy's piece pulled from the Drum, The Christopher Pyne experiments, to which we link only so you can deplore it too).