(Above: a weekend joke to help ease into the Monday. More Doonesbury, and the full weekend panel here until it shuffles down the page).
There's nothing like waking up in the morning to the sounds of social conservatives stigmatising some social group, on the basis that big government should withdraw from supervising the masses and interfering in private lives, except when big government should stigmatise the masses and interfere in private lives ...
Today it's David Cameron, scribbling furiously in the UK Sunday Telegraph in honour of Father's Day, in David Cameron: Dad's gift to me was his optimism, without apparently realising that he was invoking an old Monty Python routine:
From my father, Ian, I learnt about responsibility. Seeing him get up before the crack of dawn to go and do a hard day’s work and not come back until late at night had a profound impact on me.
Of course the pond's father got up at 4 am each day and rarely returned from working at mill until 5 am the next day, always by flickering match light, but let's not be unseemly or competitive or cast a slight on the parents for the son's remarks.
What's most remarkable in Cameron's address to the nation is his proposal for stigmatising and shaming as a form of social policy, in a way worthy of the Amish:
At the same time, I also think we need to make Britain a genuinely hostile place for fathers who go AWOL. It’s high time runaway dads were stigmatised, and the full force of shame was heaped upon them. They should be looked at like drink drivers, people who are beyond the pale. They need the message rammed home to them, from every part of our culture, that what they’re doing is wrong – that leaving single mothers, who do a heroic job against all odds, to fend for themselves simply isn’t acceptable.
Actually what this is, it turns out, is politician's code for runaway dads paying their way when it comes to supporting children, which is handy because Cameron's government is about to make life harder for parents wanting to claim support from non-resident parents (as can be read here in David Cameron criticised after attacking 'runaway dads').
It gets to a pretty pass when it's women who spring to the defence of absent men:
Erin Pizzey, the founder of the first UK's women's refuge, said Mr Cameron was displaying a lack of understanding about the reality of family break-ups.
"There are a lot of reasons why [fathers are] not with their children... not least that women won't let them," she said.
Ms Pizzey said it was wrong to single out men, adding: "There is a vast mass of women who are equally as feckless as the men and we never talk about them."
"There are a lot of reasons why [fathers are] not with their children... not least that women won't let them," she said.
Ms Pizzey said it was wrong to single out men, adding: "There is a vast mass of women who are equally as feckless as the men and we never talk about them."
On reflection, I'm not so sure about this quest for complexity and an adult response to difficult personal situations.
Perhaps it's time to bring back the stocks in the village square or church yards - happily the EU always produces an over-supply of tomatoes to be flung at stock-bound recalcitrants - and thus the shaming of absent male parents can take place in a socially acceptable way (and for women, if Cameron had a clue about equal opportunity, why not bring back the cucking or dunking stool?)
At the same time, Cameron revealed that banality goes hand in hand with political visions:
Go to the nativity play?
Oh dear, but it helps explain why Cameron is determined to press on with providing tax breaks for married couples and ensuring that traditional family life is the cornerstone of British society.
That's right, singles and those determined to be different, you're under the Cameron conservative gun:
‘We live in an age of equality, where people don’t like to see the differences between the sexes,’ he said.
‘But it goes without saying, two different people, nurturing the same child, will bring different things to the table.’ (David Cameron: Absent fathers are as bad as drink drivers).
And it goes without saying that those folk without children should just go and quietly sit at another table, perhaps outside with the shameful smokers.
Cameron has long had form in relation to social engineering - Cameron: absent black fathers must meet responsibilities - and now the pond eagerly awaits the reverberations and the wailing and the hostility as conservative commentariat commentators round on him in the antipodes, and give him a solid whacking for his interfering, paternalistic, judgmental big government ways ... but don't hold your breath.
Meanwhile, the navel gazing of Generally grumpy Paul Sheehan into the tea leaves swirling around the factions in the NSW Liberal party reaches even more tedious depths in Libs' canker shows signs of healing.
It's another piece of Michael Photios bashing, even though "There is no suggestion here that Photios has done anything improper."
Readers who took the pond's advice, and decided they'd hold their breath until Sheehan wrote a piece exposing the evil, baleful influence of Opus Dei on NSW Liberal politician David Clarke and his wife have long since gone blue in the face, turned up their toes like a Norwegian Blue parrot, and expired.
Instead we get Photios this, Photios that, and it almost goes without saying that Photios, often known affectionately to the tabloids as a love rat - such sights are sure to send the generally grumpy Sheehan into a frenzy - is on the factional left wet moderate side, and David Clarke is his factional enemy on the hard right side (Senior Liberal Michael Photios to quit key vice-presidential job).
It's almost as if Sheehan won't rest until the hard line right emerge triumphant from the factional wars, and can begin their own social engineering experiment in New South Wales, though you won't read anything about it, unless you read between the lines.
Instead you get Sheehan rabbiting on about a charismatic anonymous woman complaining about being locked out of preselection for her local seat by an anonymous factional operator, which is a bit like the pond complaining about anonymous bloggers and anonymous comments.
Still, it seems that Arthur Sinodinos is shortly to land the NSW presidency, and so save the party and the state from a cynically abused state of emergency, and so the canker at the core will be sorted, and everything will be well, which will be a great relief to everyone. Especially those devoted readers anxious that Paul Sheehan get back to being generally grumpy about things other than Michael Photios and moderate liberal types, like climate change ...
Meanwhile, it's time again for readers to hold their breath until Sheehan scribbles an agitated column about the role of Opus Dei in the political lives of certain key factional power brokers in the Liberal party.
What's the bet you'll be bluer than a blue moon before the year is out?
And now another weekend joke, as Bill Maher explains the improvement brought about in Texas drought conditions by Governor Rick Perry's Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas.
Perry's at it again, declaring August 6th a Day of Prayer and Fasting for Our Nation's Challenges:
"Given the trials that beset our nation and world, from the global economic downturn to natural disasters, the lingering danger of terrorism and continued debasement of our culture, I believe it is time to convene the leaders from each of our United States in a day of prayer and fasting, like that described in the book of Joel," Gov. Perry said. "I urge all Americans of faith to pray on that day for the healing of our country, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of enduring values as our guiding force."
Perry's looking to the book of Joel for an inspirational way to solve the current problems of the United States? What's more amazing, some are even suggesting he should throw his hat into the ring for the Republican nomination (Chris Wallace Praises Rick Perry's Record).
Can American politics get any weirder?
For a video of Maher's new rules about Governor Perry, go here. Enjoy the weirdness while you can ...
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