In which the pond contemplates faceless men, Christopher Pearson's power of prophecy, the Ten network, and Satan in US politics ...

(Above: a faceless man. More Nicholson here).

In recent days Minister Crean and a number of other faceless men have publicly attacked my integrity and therefore my fitness to serve as a minister in the government ... Kevin Rudd

Lordy, lordy, who'da thunk it.

Poor old Simon Crean is a faceless man?

It's true he has the sort of mug that's unlikely to grace the cover of Vogue, and it's true he's disappointed his true believers. Who can forget Christopher Pearson pumping him up back in July 2011?

In the space of a week the online betting odds on Simon Crean becoming the next Labor leader have shortened from 100 to one down to eight.
This may or may not mean anything, of course, and the sums being wagered are not huge, but let us note it as a straw in the wind.
In some ways Crean's the obvious choice. (yes, to be self-referential, we noted it here).

Obvious to Pearson perhaps - that's a bit like saying Pearson is obviously a fool - but a faceless man, like Nicolas Cage in a bad Johnny Woo movie?

Poor old faceless Simon had to go on Radio National this morning to deny that he's a faceless man, and that he'd actually said what he said openly, on television, with a freely identifiable face. In turn poor old faceless Simon accused Rudd of being backed by faceless people.

Well sad to say, the pond wished it had some skin in the game, but a really bad soap opera featuring a prima donna having a hissy fit, around midnight, clearly having lost a slipper, and a pumpkin turning up instead of the carriage, and with Doug Cameron and Bruce Hawker in supporting roles, has all the charm and appeal of Days of Our Lives, and with less style than Dallas.

(well you've got the link for Nicholson already)

As for Doug Cameron and Bruce Hawker being faceless ... well it's true that their clock faces produce the sort of mug shots unlikely to grace the pages of Vogue, but why do people who turn up on television always keep yammering on about them being faceless?

What's that you say? The pond heard Simon Crean on radio? By golly, he was faceless. The pond just mistook the face of the radio for Crean's face ... a natural enough slip.

And then he was followed by Doug Cameron, who was also faceless ... though you might have mistaken him for a knob on the radio ...

So come Monday there'll be a showdown of the faceless men and women ... who think there's some mileage in calling everyone faceless. What a pity, when you think about it, that Kevin Rudd isn't actually faceless. Perhaps gormless ... or egomaniacal ... but with a face.

Still, there was some good news today. It seems the pond's unilateral boycott is having a desperate effect on the Ten Network - Big three investors lose millions as Ten's profits plunge.

It seems The Bolt Report hasn't been able to deliver the figures needed, and so the network must now hang out for the return of MasterChef Australia. There's talk of slashing costs and investing in more programming, and the pond's advice is to turn the whole network over to Andrew Bolt and New Zealand shock jock Paul Henry, because the way ahead must surely involve heaps of faceless men ... (and with a bit of luck, if Ten keeps going the political way it's going, instead of sticking to the young demographic that was once its turf, Gina Rinehart will lose a bundle).

Meanwhile, events in the United States continue to exercise charm as the Republicans keep playing their faceless games.

There is of course a striking biblical warning about the role Rick Santorum plays in politics:

For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones (Matthew 24;24 here in sundry translations, but false messiah seems so apt).

The greatest wonder is that Santorum continues to do so well in the Republican rat race. Could it be that the warning Jeremiah sent in 27:9 has been ignored?

Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon (here)

Or serve the Islamic infidel born in Kenya.

Well wouldn't you know that Santorum's speech about Satan in 2008 has turned up on the Drudge report and other ratbag sites, and then spread to the four winds, perhaps by horsemen heading toward the apocalypse:

"Satan has done so by attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition," he is heard saying in audio versions of the speech, which were posted online on Tuesday.

"This is a spiritual war, and the father of lies has his sights on what you would think the father of lies, Satan, would have his sights on: A good, decent, powerful, influential country — the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age? There is no one else to go after other than the United States." (here)

It's light comedy until you remember that Santorum is wanting to get his finger on a nuclear weapons hoard at the same time as the mad mullahs are aiming to build some. Take that spawn of Satan, no you take that infidel spawn of Satan, and so on and so forth ...

Meanwhile the peculiar ways of Mormons forms a convenient attack point for those who want anyone bar Romney. In particular the matter of baptising and converting in a posthumous way the dead continues to attract flack, as in Mormon Baptism Controversy Now Includes Catholic Witness to Holocaust.

The Mittster has ducked and weaved away from the issue, but it gets even stranger when you get down to the details:

Mormons believe the posthumous baptism rite has no effect unless the deceased soul accepts it.

That's a way better deal than the Catholics offer with their deathbed confession and absolution. You find out where you're going, discover all bets are off, and that you've actually landed in heaven with Joseph Smith, and you send a message back home that the deal's accepted. Mormonism rulez ... and why wouldn't it, being a home grown religion and all, instead of that foreign muck.

The funniest thing? The way sophisticated westerners send up witch doctors and ancestor worship ... and then you have the current rabble of Republican ratbags associated with talk of Satanism and cult religions ...

Truly the Republican race just keeps on giving and giving ... especially when Santorum gets off Satan and turns to science:

I just said when you have world view that elevates the Earth above man and says that we can’t take those resources because we’re going to harm the Earth -- like things that are not scientifically proven like the politicization of the whole global warming debate.

Roll that one around on your tongue like a rough red before spitting it out. The politicization of the global warming debate isn't scientifically proven ...

And then you cop this:

... we all know that man has a responsibility of stewards of the Earth, that we are good stewards and we have a responsibility to be good stewards. Why? Because unlike the Earth, we're intelligent and we can actually manage things. (here)

Yep, it's the old dominionist routine, though without any scientific evidence that the current crop of Republicans are intelligent and can actually manage things. If Rick Santorum is a sign of the intelligence at work, then Darwin and the theory of evolution was wrong, and the creationists win ...

Is it any wonder that the story that Sarah Palin thought the Queen was in charge of the troops in Iraq is doing the rounds:

Her confusion emerged during a coaching session with Steve Schmidt, a top McCain adviser, who asked Mrs Palin what she would do if Britain began to waver in its commitment to the Iraq war.
In one of the many rambling responses that steadily eroded her credibility during the campaign, Mrs Palin reportedly replied that she would "continue to have an open dialogue" with the Queen. (here)

Oh yes, it's high comedy:

Game Change describes panicked cramming sessions during the campaign, with aides beginning their history tutorial with the Spanish Civil War and carrying through to post-9/11 era.
Mrs Palin was initially enthusiastic, making notes on hundreds of coloured flash cards, but became increasingly sullen and was described by tutors as going into a "catatonic stupor".

It reminded the pond that blogger Tim Blair had a huge man crush on Palin for a long time, and perhaps still does, no matter what the strange stories that emerge about her. Back in the day he blamed all her woes on the liberal press and bloggers (here). Oh how the meejia was cruel to her, especially those cads at network Ten (here) and no doubt the current reports are yet another conspiracy to deny Palin her rightful place at the head of the free world.

The only question remaining to be decided is whether Blair is thicker than Palin, and we look forward to his ongoing dialogue with the Queen to get the right answer.

And there you go. Talk about the soap opera of the ongoing political days of our lives. You've got to laugh, it's the only way to keep the tears at bay ...

Now repeat after me: Like faceless sands through the faceless hourglass, so are the faceless days of our faceless lives ...