From a creative Campbell Newman to existential questions about Christopher Pearson and Rowan Dean ...

(Above: cruel, but fair? Found here).

Campbell Newman, genius?

Talk of a clever state, abolish an inexpensive set of writers' awards and spruik the joys of a brand new casino?

Yep, there was Mr Newman urging not just a snappy slogan but talking of ways to encourage and support creativity right across the community (you can read it in Public service cuts 'never to be repeated'.

No doubt he's on to something. Queenslanders will undoubtedly get cleverer and more creative by playing the poker machines in a casino - the skill level required is much higher than Go Fish, Snap and Pick up Sticks. And think of the mathematical skills and insights into physics roulette requires.

And there should be a sharp increase in moral philosophers on the ground, debating how many public servants to re-employ to deal with the issues raised by problem gamblers.

Such a creative man with so many creative solutions for the creative state.

Speaking of creative, how about News Ltd, and how to draw entirely the wrong conclusion.

Mark Scott, clap happy head of the ABC, blames piracy for Network Ten's slump, despite an unattractive menu of failed and flailing programs. It seems, according to Scott, that the pirates have been watching all Ten's programs online long before they landed on shore in Oz, which is odd since Ten pinned its strategy to local big event programming which folded like a souffle gone wrong. (Piracy to blame for Ten slump: Scott)

Conclusion? Kim Williams urges government legislators to keep protecting the tired protectionist practices of the local industry by cracking down on piracy. That'd be the same interventionist interfering government abhorred by the Murdoch press and the likes of Fox News.

Alternative? Instead of abusing and denying audiences, and insisting on regional rights, why not service customers with same day and date programming? Too hard, too new, too difficult?

Instead let's keep abusing and ignoring the customers, courtesy of an interventionist government.

Does this make News Ltd one of the Mittster's 47%, mooching and bludging on the government for a soft-touch hand out?

The ABC showed the way with an alternative strategy - that was half the point of Scott's talk which contained as much preening and boasting as it did piracy chat - with its online release of the latest Dr. Who, and now Nine has the chance to match CBS with the first episode of season six of The Big Bang Theory airing on CBS in the States on 27th September.

Let's see how Nine goes, and let's see if it's all to hard for a network which has relentlessly repeated this product and a few other US shows, such that its home page for the sitcom is largely full of complaints from fans (here).

Enough already, the industry will keep banging the piracy drum instead of delivering product to customers in a timely and engaging way, and wonder why FTA is going down the drain.

Meanwhile, on the 'politics as entertainment' front, The Australian maintains the rage by headlining an "Exclusive" about Labor "bullies" and ministerial advisers. What an indefatigable bunch of crusaders they are.

And while the Fairfax grannies ask questions of Tony Abbott - there's Peter Hartcher brooding about Mission rethink for Abbott - tireless apologist and Abbott hugger (close your eyes when thinking of this) Christopher Pearson is reliably on hand to explain why he's eternally off the mark when it comes to speculation about politics:

Two weeks ago, when Newspoll found that Labor's and the Greens' primary vote had slumped by 2 per cent and 3 per cent respectively, I argued that the Gillard government had lost momentum. 
On Monday Newspoll found that Labor had improved by three points, the Greens by four points and that the Coalition had fallen five points to 41 per cent. On the strength of those figures it had also lost a 10-point two-party preferred advantage, leaving both sides on 50 per cent. What are we to make of these findings? (Polls part on voters' thinking, behind the paywall)

Indeed. What are we to make of Pearson habitually getting things wrong?

What are we to make of his past predictions that Simon Crean would be a suitable replacement for Julia Gillard, or perhaps Stephen Smith, Wayne Swan, Greg Combet or Bill Shorten, that Gillard would be gone within the month (pick a month, any month will do), or that Kevin Rudd was about to mount an challenge (pick a month, any moth will do), or that an early election would be called to forestall the damage to Labor (pick a date, any date will do), or that the despicable independents would fold, or that lordy lordy, yadda yadda, and so on and on and on, waiting for the apocalypse and the rapture, or in pond-speak, roaming the range with the pixies.

What we can say of Pearson's routine uxorious findings is that his advice and reassurances to Abbott must have done considerable damage to the Liberal party, as he's always nattering on about short-term tactics, hopes and possible opportunities, rather than proposing playing a longer strategic game, and it's only now that people like Hartcher are starting to notice and write about it, post the introduction of the supposedly "apocalyptic" carbon tax.

There'll be a lot more up and down in the polls, and Abbott must remain favourite, given the way more private polling is running, but reliable advice is that in any given circumstance, Pearson will be reliably wrong. He must have powerful friends to keep on holding down a position at The Australian ...

Finally, having thrown out the AFRs that accumulated on the verandah during the time the pond was away, the pond has now begun reading the rag again, and arrived at an existential question.

Why does Rowan Dean exist?

Here's the pond's challenge to you. Read Dean's effort Romney's disgraceful truth-telling exposed, which is about the Mittster and the 47%, an uneasy and churlish attempt to salvage the man by proposing he's a seer and a savant and a truth-teller, as opposed to a naughty boy caught out amongst his mates, and see if you can find any hint of wit, cleverness, humour or insight within it ...

Then take a look at Jon Stewart giving the Mittster a going over in "Chaos on Bullshit Mountain" (the only way we can link to Stewart these days, damn you Foxtel, damn you to hell).

We merely report and you decide, but there's a reason Stewart is a highly paid comedian and Dean is a lazy, mooching freeloader not averse to sticking his snout in the taxpayer-funded ABC for lunch money. Welcome to the 47% Mr. Dean, don't feel too bad if the Mittster feels contempt for your mooching ways ...

And now, as a coda, for a bit of fun, the pond commends Damon Young's The fight for common sense, in which he discovers that heterosexual marriage leads to sin, vice and debauchery, and therefore needs to be banned, before arriving at this punchline:

This is why we need dog whistle politics: to avoid the love that dare not bark its name. 

As hoped for, a number of solemn Xians came out of the woodwork and took the bait, and so made the comments section fun to read.

Unlike Dean, Young manages to put a smile on the dial, and that, this Saturday, as the pond settles into its usual post-Pearson funk is a useful thing. Why does he take himself so seriously, the preening, portentous, pompous, solemn wretch?

(Below: Bernardi contemplates dog in Rod Clement's cartoon for the AFR here).