Miranda Devine, and how to be deeply, offensively stupid in a class warfare kind of way ...

(Above: goody goody gumdrops, a chance to do Godwin's law right at the get go).

Fundamentally, it has to be said, and with only a tinge of sadness, Miranda the Devine is stupid. Deeply, offensively stupid.

On any given day of the week, you might find her railing at Islamic extremism, the dangers of sophisticated, articulate Islamic fundamentalists, and so on and forth (it's all there back in 2006 in Wolves in sheep's clothing on an extremist Islamic mission).

Yet effectively in today's piece in the Sunday Terror, Miranda Devine on Julia Gillard plotting class warfare, she spends time arguing for the ongoing federal funding of Muslim schools.

It's true she doesn't actually mention Muslim schools, but that's because fundamentally she's stupid. Did I mention deeply, offensively so?

It would have only taken a moment of her time to catch up on Maleh Fahd Islamic School 'fees' funding Australian Federation of Islamic Councils:

The nation's peak Muslim body is extracting millions of dollars in rent and fees from a successful Islamic school in Sydney that draws most of its funding from taxpayers.

Documents reveal the Malek Fahd Islamic School paid the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils $5.2 million last year alone, an amount equal to one-third of the school's educational funding from the federal and state governments.

That produced a response in Peter Garrett calls probe into Islamic school amid rent increases, but you won't hear a peep about it in the Miranda the Devine piece.

Nor will you hear a peep about federal government funding of the scientology-based school that lurks around the corner from us, and boasts brand-new infrastructure courtesy the taxpayer.

Yes, we bang on about it all the time, but the idea that taxpayers are supporting the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard is inclined to send the pond into a frenzy (Schools linked to Scientology will get $1.6m).

There's only a few people who get similarly agitated, and they tend to be the Devine's mortal enemies, the greenies:

A leaflet advertising the Athena School in Newtown has been referred to the state's consumer watchdog for allegedly obscuring the school's link to Scientology.

The NSW Greens yesterday lodged a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, claiming the leaflet represented false advertising and a potential breach of the Trade Practices Act.

The Applied Scholastics logo, the education arm of Scientology, appears in the bottom corner of the leaflet, which includes the words ''education services and materials based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard''. (School rapped over failure to declare Scientology links).

And it's just as easy to get agitated about taxpayers funding fundamentalist Christian schools, whether the cult the Exclusive Brethren, or other just plain loony schools dedicated to teaching creationism and the literal truth of the bible as preparation for the twenty first century, or perhaps the rapture ...

Even the Daily Terror occasionally gets agitated about this sort of thing, as in Exclusive Brethren school given millions in funding:

A religious school run by the secretive Exclusive Brethren religion was granted more than $9 million in government funding despite getting $15 million from "other private sources", the MySchool 2.0 website reveals.

The government handout was based on it being rated one of the most disadvantaged schools in the nation, equivalent to an impoverished Aboriginal mission school.

Yet despite its government classification as a "category 12" school, with private funding it is able to spend more than $20,000 a year on each student. The average for a state school is about $10,000 per student.

But you won't read about it in Devine, because it has to be said yet again, the Devine is deeply, offensively stupid.

Here's how it works. The well-off independent schools are now hooked on the federal government funding gravy train, while the struggling Catholic school sector couldn't survive without it.

But because there's a 'fair dibs' philosophy at work in federal funding, anyone can set up a school based on their religious/educational beliefs, and hold out their paws for some taxpayer funding. Sure they have to conform to certain standards, but not any standards that would rule out religious fundamentalism or cultish behaviour (on sunny days, the pond dreams of a school designed around the beliefs of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).

The mainstream independent schools, eager to take the easy taxpayer bucks, accept the eccentrics and the loons as a kind of collateral damage. Never mind if Muslims get to sit at the trough, and take money away from the public system, so long as the Anglicans and the Catholics can sit at the trough, and get more than their fair share ...

Any attempt to do something about a funding system that is truly stuffed is then greeted by the likes of Catholic Miranda the Devine with a header like Julia Gillard plotting class warfare.

And that's because deep down Miranda the Devine is truly, offensively stupid, and in league with the nation's peak Muslim body, but doesn't seem to know it, because she's truly, offensively stupid.

Naturally the Devine channels "expert" Kevin Donnelly in sounding the alarm about the Gonski review of education, which includes Ken Boston, who once was critical of the "neo-Darwin free-market forces" at work in the federal funding of the private system.

Well there's a nice Darwinian irony at play, since one of the hallmarks of the loonier areas of the private system is the desire to teach creationism (Christian schools angry over ban on teaching creationism).

The Devine's piece is a pre-emptive strike against the Gonski report, and whatever it might find and recommend in relation to the current funding system.

How can the Devine rail about a report not yet published, with recommendations unknown, and conclude that it's part of Julia Gillard's class warfare? As opposed to fixing a funding system and an education system with deep, entrenched structural problems?

Well that's because - did I mention it? - Miranda the Devine is deeply, offensively stupid.

Still it's pleasing to see her in the trenches doing her bit to keep the teaching of creationism in schools funded, the work of cults funded, and the teachings of the Qur'an funded, all so that Catholic schools and posh, toffee-nosed well off private schools can keep their noses in the trough of federal funding ...

But that's because - surely you can join in the chorus by now - Miranda the Devine is deeply, offensively stupid ... and perhaps this is a by-product of obtaining an education at Loreto Kirribilli.

Do they put something in the water on the lower north shore, or in the federally funded system for the education of Catholics?

No matter. Bring on the Gonski report and let's get down and dirty with the hysteria because we have a Camperdown Aphrodite College of the FSM to fund, and with any luck, a future federal government will build it a nice assembly hall ...

Who knows, maybe then the Devine will get agitated about the absurdity of the federal government funding a school based on the principals of the FSM, but I suspect she won't now what the initials mean ... because she's deeply ... (please fill in the rest at your leisure).

Bizarrely the Daily Terror also hosts intelligent commentary on the education system, and you could - as an alternative - read Maralyn Parker in Finally an independent call on school funding and some solutions:

What is wrong has always been pretty obvious. But to sum up of the four very comprehensive reports (apologies to the writers of hundreds of pages); our current arrangements are unfair, unsustainable and too complex; they are increasingly an ineffective way to spend money on schooling; we are pooling disadvantaged children and other more expensive children to educate into certain schools and then making it worse for them and more difficult for their teachers; we need to rethink completely how we fund schools; and importantly we need to be clear about what we want schools to achieve with their funding.

Yep, while all the idle rhetoric about class warfare is going down, there are real problems in the state and private school systems, and no amount of idle chatter about class warfare should distract from the need for a number of fixes.

But the pond suspects that up against the fear, loathing, and hysteria generated by the Devine from her high profile perch, Parker's whistling into the wind.

It remains a wonder why the Daily Terror has Parker in its midst. She seems so at odds with the general tone of incoherent rage, hysteria and ratbaggery ...

And you might think it's a pity the Devine prefers to read "expert" Donnelly than her stable-mate Parker, but that's because - I'll say it only one more time - Miranda the Devine is deeply, offensively stupid ...

(Below: you might think of her as a conservative, but the pond likes to think of her as a comedian, because how else to explain her enthusiastic politically correct support for the funding of Muslim schools? What is she, part of some deep leftist conspiracy, since we all know lefties support the Islamics, or at least we do if we read Paul Sheehan).