Barking mad and howling at the moon in the shire ...

The pond is always on a learning curve.

Thanks to Anthony Sharwood, scribbling A triumph for the white, vacuous, botoxed minority, we learned this today:

Recently-released 2011 census data shows that 87 per cent of Shire locals have Australian ancestry.

87% of Shire locals are Australian aborigines? Who'd have thought it?

The national average is just 35 per cent.

35% of Australians boast they're indigenous black? Now that's news ...

There's stupidity, there's statistics, there's Anthony Sharwood, and there's the need to provide a definition of the murky notion of "Australian ancestry", but let it just be said that each time the pond reads The Punch, a few more IQ points slip into the ether.

Is it the Celt, or the Anglo or the Irish or the German on the Spanish or the Lithuanian genes in the pond that does it?

Sharwood didn't like Ten's show about the Shire, but frankly he's just as loose with ideas and concepts as the inhabitants of that wretched piece of tosh - at least they don't bother with big words like "Australian ancestry" when "wogs" will do.

Naturally in the comments section below the Sharwood piece, the comments quickly descended into a discussion confusing race with ethnicity and nationality, and blathering on about middle eastern types and Anglos and white guilt and the real reasons for the Cronulla riots and stopping the boats and Juliar, and it quickly became evident that the readership of The Punch is way dumber than the dimwits who turned up in the show.

As further evidence, you need only to read Tory Shepherd dragging up SCUM and Valerie Solanas from ancient history in Fender benders over gender in the internet's dark alleys.

Now you might think Tory is looking for insight, but really she's only trolling for sympathy as she gets agitated by RadFems and by MREs:

Both use offense as their defence, and will viciously attack any individual who dares criticise their claims – for example, radical feminists call me a “handmaiden misogynist” who hates women, and they published my mobile phone number, while the MREs call me a “misandrist” and a “slut feminist” and threaten to - you guessed it - f—k my shit up. You just can’t win.

What's this got to do with Valerie Solanas? Nothing much:

The question is whether it’s even worth trying to talk sense to them, to point out that they are so much more alike than they realise, or if those of us in the middle are better off just leaving them shouting into the vast echo chamber of the World Wide Web.

Yep, there's Tory shouting into the vast echo chamber of the World Wide Web, and now the pond shouts about her shout on the WWW wobbly world of wonder, and the cesspit of comments below the fold adds sundry shouts and shrieks and cries to the other Wobblies echoing away ... and can you feel those IQ points slip sliding?

We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip sliding away ...

But wait, the pond can't let you go just yet, not without an offer of steak knives and a chance to read Allison Lee assuring the world that she has special insights in Blogging and journalism. Not the same thing.

Lee comes to the astonishing conclusion on a blog full of blogging journalists that blogging and journalism aren't the same thing, which the pond assumes means that when David Penberthy scribbles Labor's Green dalliance doomed from the start for The Punch, he's being a completely useless blogger, but when the very same piece turns up word for word on the Herald Sun under the header Labor should take the easy and instant decision to ditch the Greens (HUN paywall affected here), and free at the Daily Terror under the even more bizarre header Rot has set in as Labor plays gangrene politics, he's being a completely useless journalist.

In much the same way as all the journalists talking to journalists and cranking the volume up to eleven isn't blogging, it's pure journalism ...

Lee makes the first and basic mistake of the amateur, which is to assume that these days the opinion-makers in tabloids of the Penberthy kind have anything much to offer as journalists - as if somehow they're different from the average blogger shouting into the void of the vast world wide wide web.

Sure any slavish dose of their opinions might be dressed up with gangrenous headlines of a sensationally imaginative kind, but these days any line between bloggers and journalists has been ruined, by the journalists aping bloggers and by News Ltd wanting to steal bloggers' hits.

Truth to tell, Penberthy's "journalism" is summarised at the end of his piece when he calls the Greens ideologically pure and "barking mad".

Frankly, this is the sort of aspirational verbal leadership that a blog like the pond can only admire.

You mean calling all and sundry in the world of greenies "barking mad" qualifies as journalism? Why then the pond is a veritable broadsheet right up with the top notch journals of Australia ...

Hmm, how can we demonstrate it?

Why surely everybody working for News Ltd. is "barking mad".

Eureka, the pond is no longer a blog, and will fit nicely within the News Ltd empire. Please enquire within for pricing and your free set of steak knives ...

Take it away Allison, tell us about it ...

Journalism is changing. No doubt about it. But can we trust bloggers to provide us with the news of the day? I don’t think so.

Sorry, blogger Andrew 'the bolter' Bolt, sorry Tim Blair, sorry Piers 'Acca Dacca' Akerman, sorry Miranda the Devine, sorry blogging Penbo, I don't think we can trust you with the news of the day. Why don't you just keep on releasing AAP originated stories?

You can just keep on delivering the standard sorry litany of bile, prejudice and ideologically motivated ignorance.

Can we trust them to supply excellent commentary and great stories? Absolutely.

Say what? Andrew 'the bolter' Bolt, Tim Blair, Piers 'Acca Dacca' Akerman, Miranda the Devine, and Penbo supply excellent commentary, as opposed to a sorry litany of bile, prejudice and ideologically distorted stories, routinely abusing folk as "barking mad"? (and perhaps not of decent, proper Australian ancestry).

Blogging isn’t going to replace journalism any time soon. In the brave new digital world, there’s room for journalists and bloggers. Just don’t expect them to do the same thing or tell the same story.

You really don't have a clue do you Allison?

News Ltd is full of bloggers, dressed up as journalists, trawling and trolling for hits, as a way to enhance and expand the brand.

They've dragged ordinary blogging into the gutter, and we'll be lucky if it ever escapes ...

A personality-driven format brings a different approach to writing. Journalists pride themselves on their neutrality presenting the pros and cons of a topic. In contrast, bloggers would be aghast not to be able to provide their readers with their personal opinion.

So Penbo's not a journalist - though this might be news to him.

Does he pride himself on not having a personality because he's a proud, neutral journo?

Does said neutrality mean he can verbally bash and make mince meat of 'barking mad' greenies ...?

Wouldn't it be simpler to call him a barking mad journo blogger with neutrality long lost to the world in a wither of words?

Or some such thing. The pond has lost so many IQ points, all that's left is to go barking mad in the Shire ...

The Shire? No way Jose. The pond remains loyal to Lara Bingle, who drew 925k for her debut, while The Shire could only manage 913k.

What a glorious Gina Rinehart network Ten life we can now lead.

A responsible journalist (or is that a blogger moonlighting for the HUN and so may be paywall affected?) assures us that The Shire 'makes Lara Bingle's show look like Q &A'.

The shouting, argumentative, lamentable Q & A is a show for intellectuals? Has it come to this? Has the entire world gone barking mad?

Gee thanks Gina. So this is what the future looks like. The Punch as home to quality barking mad journalist blogging, Q&A as home for barking mad intellectuals, and network Ten as home to barking mad televisual crap.

Is there any hope? Not if you read Diane Ravitch scribbling In Mitt Romney's Schoolroom (sorry, behind the NYRB paywall):

In the vision presented by Mitt Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach. In some states and regions, teachers will be fearful of teaching evolution or global warming or any controversial issues. Nor will they dare to teach books like Huckleberry Finn that are considered offensive to anyone in their community.

Oh come on Diane, send them down under.

At least they'll be able to read The Punch and look at The Shire ... and no one will wonder, especially Gina Rinehart, why Ten bleeds viewers ...

(Below: yes, you knew it, the pond only veered off to quote the NYRB and sound arty and intelligent so it could once again test the scientifically proven Lara Bingle bump, which has been certified as having genuine, barking mad Australian ancestry. Up to episode five - how time flies when you're slip sliding away - and still the interests of the gentleman viewer remain paramount, with the end of the ep even more shameless and blatant, as you can see below in a shameless and blatant attempt to match the show's blatant shamelessness).