Chairman Rupert and the quest for compassion ...

It's easy enough to see why the Murdochian press down under is barking mad, what with Chairman Rupert having returned to top twittering tweet form ...

No, not the one about Pell. That's just two of the world's top climate scientists showing respect for each other, Chairman Rupert tipping the lid to a top notch bureaucratic apparatchik and never mind the pleasure of some that he's gone (Coming out of Cardinal Pell's shadow).

It's the one about Son of God - you can do a Greg Hunt and wiki it here.

Son of God? Is the Chairman getting religion and thinking about having to explain all his sins to his Maker? Is he expecting some compassion and forgiveness?

The show, in its original miniseries form, attracted attention for having a Satan who looked like Obama. Satan's been cut from the feature film form, as you can discover by heading off to The Hollywood Reporter here.

Of course there were all sorts of denials, but have a look at Satan up against Obama and Christ:

Yep, the pond can see where that's heading. That damned Kenyan socialist atheist Muslim ... why only Emperor Palpatine is worse ...

Meanwhile, Chairman Rupert's climate science skills had been given a solid outing:

Naturally everyone focussed on Chairman Rupert's very wise insight into climate science - there's none so blindly ignorant as those who blithely assail others for their blind ignorance - but the real killer for the pond was the bizarre sight of the owner of one of the major Hollywood studios dissing the movie business, and the cost of movie going.

So you want the pond to be gouged by going to see Son of God? Wouldn't it be better to wait and pirate it?

Yep, you can see why the supine Murdochians down under are inclined to go barking mad, and happily today shows the way the hive mind can sing in unison.

Over at the the Daily Terror, the least trusted newspaper in Australia, you get a real dose of frothing and foaming from Miranda the Devine:

Sorry, the chance to juxtapose Miranda the Devine with Calvin Kleins was irresistible, but never mind, if you read The hypocrites of the left, you'll see the Devine in exceptional barking mad form

“A young man came to our doorstep seeking our help and we killed him. That is what happened on Tony Abbott’s watch and Tony Abbott now needs to show some principle and sack Scott Morrison.” That single quote from Greens MP Adam Bandt sums up the emotional flatulence and sanctimonious hypocrisy that has been spewing from the Establishment Left all week. 
If by “we”, Bandt meant the Greens and the rest of the opportunistic bleeding hearts who have been parading their compassion all week, then he would have been correct.

Compassion? The Devine won't have any talk of that bleeding heart stuff.

Her favourite word of abuse seems to be "compassionistas".

Bizarrely, the Devine on other days fancies herself as a Christian, but you do have to wonder how she'd react to Christ returning to earth.

Don't you wander around here with your bleeding heart compassionista crap, you emotionally flatulent and sanctimoniously hypocritical son of god. Bugger off and take your claptrap about love somewhere else ...

It is of course just a ploy to defend the indefensible, namely Scott Morrison. The Devine, full of bile, anger, hysteria and invective, rails at everyone in sight, the compassionistas, the greenies, Conroy, a music festival beheading of an effigy of Abbott - sssh, don't mention those 'ditch the witch' posters - and sundry other social media crimes against humanity.

You'd almost forget Morrison and Manus Island existed. There is one minor aside, so small it might even be counted as a footnote:

Yes, Berati’s death was tragic. And if there are lessons to be learned about how to manage Manus Island, the government will need to heed them.

Don't you love it? Yep, even at this stage in proceedings the Devine can phrase it "if there are lessons to be learned" as if there's some major doubt that there might be any lessons to be learned.

The Devine's favourite trick is to juxtapose past drownings with the current death and injuries - sssh, don't mention John Howard and Siev X, the sort of moral equivalence tidily captured by Steve Bell:

But wait, we haven't seen the Murdochian hive mind at work and in full cry, and for that we need to turn to Dame Slap in the lizard Oz:

If you can bother getting around the paywall to read Dame Slap - a tedious exercise with zero rewards, except to deny the Murdochians revenue - you'll find that very nasty term of Devine abuse in the header:  Compassion junkies back on their choice fix.

You see? Compassion is a filthy, vile, softie disease ...

No doubt, somewhere back in the mists of time - if you'll forgive the breach of Godwin's Law - there was a conservative German newspaper columnist furiously scribbling Compassionate Jew lovers back on their choice fix, and never find the strange wording of your 'fix of choice'.

Truth to tell, the coalition must seriously be feeling the heat if they need to trot out both the Devine and Albrechtsen on the same day, screeching and squawking like two parrots who learned the same words of abuse, though it is clever for Albrechtsen to pose as an intellectual while smoting and smiting anything and anybody in sight.

There's more talk of boat drownings, and a gloss of hard-headed realism, and talk of hyperbole and hypocrisy, and talk of parallel universes, because let's face it, what's a riot and a death and sundry injuries.

It is necessary when embarking on these exercises to drag in all sorts of other grievances - just as the Devine did with the music festival and social media.

Happily Dame Slap has a Christmas stocking that seems to be the size of a very large pillow:

For the poorly named progressives, to question multiculturalism was akin to being racist. Never mind that the Left’s version of multiculturalism encouraged tolerance for those who detested our most basic values. To question the value of signing Kyoto was treated as supporting environmental vandalism. Never mind that Kyoto was meaningless gesture politics.

Multiculturalism? Climate change? What's this got to do with Scott Morrison's handling of Manus Island?

Why diddly squat, but when doing a feather display, you need to bung on a real do. From there, it's just a short step to berating Christians for being soft in the head:

These where the halcyon days for the unthinking Left. A week before the 2004 election, the outgoing head of the Anglican Church, Peter Carnley, sermonised against the West on the “so-called war on terrorism” and described Australia as a “nation hell-bent on a course of disturbing questionable morality.” Resorting to lazy and dangerous moral relativism, he described Saddam Hussein as “morally suspect”.

That's as opposed to the wonderful success of the war in Iraq.

Never mind, you won't find Dame Slap in this piece reminding the world that more than 600 people have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of February and over 1,650 killed since the beginning of the year (here), while on the 1st January this year it could be reported that Iraq's annual death toll highest in five years.

The commentariat long ago left that building, and no, whatever the store's signs say about paying for breakages, all you have to do is walk out the door ...

Could it get any weirder?

Why of course, it's a Murdoch rag, and so Dame Slap concludes, not just by praising Scott Morrison, and never mind his bungling and mishandling of matters this past week, but by rehabilitating Philip Ruddoch:

The return of a conservative government in Canberra under Tony Abbott has reminded the Left of their retreat from reality. And just as they detested then immigration minister Philip Ruddock, they have targeted Morrison as their new bete noir. 
Derided as a war criminal, accused of committing crimes against humanity, described as the minister for racism, Ruddock’s ministerial eye remained fixed on the long-term objective where border protection was integral to building long-term support for increased immigration. 
Ruddock dealt in outcomes, not empty gestures. Morrison is the same. No wonder a sense of deja vu has set in. Now, like then, the conceit of the Left cannot be ignored as merely dim-witted and harmless. Now, like then, when compassion junkies enter the national debate, there needs to be a health warning that their drug of choice is dangerous for the country.

The real deja vu is to see the hive mind in such splendid form, so reluctant to take a step backward, so determined to follow the six hundred, no matter which valley of death they might want to ride into...

Of all the hysteria offered up by the Devine and Dame Slap, it seems to the pond that Dame Slap had the winner:

Never mind that plenty of Australians choose to work hard so they can live in bigger houses than the shoe-boxes of their childhoods.

Because you deserve to live in a MacMansion ...

Or perhaps snap up the humble top four flours of a condominium tower near Manhattan's Madison Square Park for a humble US$57. 3million. (Rupert Murdoch snaps up four-storey New York penthouse)

Yes, yes, it's got nothing to do with a rigorous examination of Scott Morrison's handling of Manus Island, but remember that's the entire point.

Which brings us back to where we started. Climate science sorted, soft Christian fuddy duddies pissed on from a great height, and Scott Morrison as noble as Philip Ruddock.

What else to say?

Well you could read Ross Gittins scribbling Under Tony Abbott, political principles reach an all-time low (forced video at end of link):

The man who set new lows in negativity and obstructionism in opposition is now taking us to new lows in government. In a more godly world, Labor would resist the temptation to sink to the level of misbehaviour set by its opponents, thus giving substance to its repeated claims of moral superiority. But so intense is the competition between the parties that this seems unlikely. Last week Bill Shorten promised to lead a constructive opposition and not oppose everything for the sake of it. It's a wonderful resolve - one which, if lived up to, many voters would find attractive - but I fear it's another take from Tony Abbott: almost tearful promises to sin no more, followed by an immediate resumption.

Uh huh. Of course Gittins could just as easily have written:

The commentariat, who set new lows in negativity and vile abuse when the Liberals were in opposition are now taking us to new lows now the Liberals are in government ...

But then you wouldn't be in Murdoch la la land where the hive bees can only hum in unison, and compassion is a dirty, alien, foreign, stinking, word ...

Irony?

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. (Luke 10:30-35, and more quotes on compassion here)

Oh sure you can rush off to see the movie Son of God, though it's a bloody expensive exercise in being gouged, but don't take that Christ business too seriously.

Just put on your hard hat and kick the shit out of somebody. It's even better if you do it in the name of the Australian Government and the Australian people ...

And never mind if it's pulling the wings off flies.

Remind you of anyone?

Uh huh. That sets us up nicely for a David Pope cartoon, and remember more Pope here.