The scorpion goes about his business - it's in his nature - and Polonius goes about his prattle - it's in his nature too ...

The Fairfaxians thought so much of this story that they gave it a big splash, and an EXCLUSIVE label. Yes they did, they did:

Well you can read it here, but really this could only be considered a news story to anyone who hasn't heard Orson Welles telling the story of the scorpion and the frog in Mr. Arkadin.

Abbott is, like most politicians, a professional liar, who will say and do and promise anything to get into power, and then once in power, say and do anything he thinks he can get away with ... and breaking promises is the least of it...

Abbott was always going to do over the ABC, it's in his nature, and it's also a natural and easy favour to the Murdochians, a down payment on the leg up they gave to him, and if anyone expected anything else when they voted for Abbott, well tadpoles, say hello to the bottom of the pond ...

Meanwhile, in other Fairfaxian news, Racism rife in schools, finds study, which again is completely unsurprising.

After all, children have as much right to be bigots as do adults, and how splendid it is that the rule of the bigots has helped bigotry to flourish ...

Speaking of bigotry, Gerard Henderson yesterday displayed some splendid confusion in Reality becoming a boring, distorted place as inner-city Left displaces the conservatives. (behind the paywall because you have to pay to access the very best minds, and Murdochians as well).

It will be remembered, for those few who care to remember the deep thoughts of our very own Prattling Polonius, that in days gone by, Polonius developed quite a bee in his bonnet about Muslim Lebanese people being the ruination of Sydney.

It was all the fault of the Fraser government, and Polonius hit something of a peak with Threat from enemy within makes anti-terrorism laws indispensable:

Some Muslim Lebanese-Australians have done well. Many have not. Too many are involved, with others, in criminal gangs in Sydney's south-west. A few have been convicted of conspiracy to commit quite horrendous terrorist acts.

In the usual way, Polonius got some figures wrong when referencing a paper by academic Andrew Zammit, and then in the usual way, harassed Zammit in follow-up correspondence, in which it was clearly revealed, in stunning detail, that Polonius was the font of all wisdom, and Zammit somewhat blind for failing to understand this, and for daring to chide the mighty Polonius for pushing things too far (and naturally the all-seeing, all-knowing Polonius recorded his infallibility in his Media Watch Dog, here)

Now some find this public entertainment deplorable or perplexing:

I’ve generally considered the amusement some leftists take from Gerard Henderson’s blog to be slightly distasteful, an echo of the nineteenth-century fashion for visiting London’s asylum to giggle at the Bedlamites as they grimaced and drooled and tugged at themselves. 
Sure, there’s a degree of gall that some might call admirable involved in convincing the mysterious corporate backers of the Sydney Institute to fund Henderson’s late career reinvention as an internet pest. But his obsession with trivial slights from five decades ago, his penchant for posing as a dog, the peculiar interjections from his imaginary editor (‘They make him sound batshit crazy!’ – Ed), the narcissistic publication of the letters in which he harasses correspondents about inanities, his stalkerish refusal to move on from his failed bromance with Robert Manne: together, it all renders Media Watch Dog unpleasantly like the digital chronicle of a slow-moving nervous breakdown. (here)

Luckily the pond isn't inclined to leftism, and must take its pleasures where it finds them, and so to Polonius denouncing yet again, and for the zillionth time, David Marr, for failing to understand the genius of Polonius, and the Pellists, and consequently getting everything and anything you name wrong:

Marr’s article exhibits a considerable confusion.
On the one hand, he acknowledges that “this is a tolerant country that absorbs migrants with astonishing success”.
Yet he maintains that “strong minority resentments remain in play”. But do they? There are two empirical tests that measure the presence or absence of applied bigotry, and Australia comes out very well in both. 
This nation has a relatively very low level of ethnically motivated crime along with a relatively high level of intermarriage between the numerous ethnic groups. 
Moreover, the suburbs of Australia are much more diverse than the inner-city areas where Marr and his mates in the intelligentsia tend to live. And many parts of regional Australia have welcomed refugees into their communities when given the opportunity.

Yes, it's a miracle, those bloody Lebs which created such confusion and chaos, and were a rich source of jihadist terrorism and crime back in 2012, have suddenly merged into a blithe portrait of an astonishingly successful and tolerant Australia ... with the ever so tolerant Polonius prattling as he leads the way.

Call off ASIO, call off the jihads of war, all is forgiven Leb Islamics ...

And it gets better and better, as Polonius celebrates ordinary Australia, and denounces Marr:

So how is it that an intelligent man such as Marr can have such a distorted view of his fellow Australians who live in the outer suburbs and regional areas? 
The answer may well lie in the fact he attends too many literary festivals and listens to too many ABC debates where everyone agrees with everyone else and a fine, leftist, ideological time is had by all.

So how is it that hapless Polonius could have, only recently, had such a distorted view of the Leb crime and terrorist riddled western suburbs?

Could it be that he has now found his natural home amongst the reptiles at the lizard Oz, where everyone agrees with everyone else and a fine, rabid, reactionary, right wing conservative ideological time is had by all?

Especially by people who head off to their inner city elite aerie, funded by elite anonymous donors - too rich to have their name publicly dropped in casual social intercourse - and who spend most of their time explaining from their remote inner city aerie how everybody else is out of touch with working regional Australia?

Then, having exhausted Marr as a piñata, Henderson turns to another favourite for a good thrashing - the Sydney Writers Festival and its list of speakers, who show dangerous greenie and leftie tendencies, with barely a conservative on the list, and all funded by the taxpayer ...

It's a left wing stack, Polonius rants, but the lingering impression is that the chief outrage is that Henderson himself isn't on the list.

Sure, they invited Boris Johnson to the Melbourne Writers Festival as a token conservative, but what wit or wisdom has this "colourful Mayor of London" got to offer up against the assembled reptiles at the lizard Oz? And Polonius in particular?

But there is one insight Polonius offers which is worth treasuring:

According to Birrell, this year’s SWF will push “all kinds of boundaries”. 
It won’t, because it will more closely resemble a series of common sermons than an exchange of diverse views. 
Conferences where almost everyone agrees with almost everyone else are invariably boring. They also have the effect of distorting reality as the inner-city Left dismiss as bigoted the “they” who happen to live in suburban and regional Australia.

Um, is there a NZ subbie in the house?

So why does The Australian more closely resemble a series of common sermons than an exchange of diverse views?
Well, newspapers where almost everyone agrees with almost everyone else are invariably boring. They also have the effect of distorting reality as the inner-city Right wing reptiles scribbling for the lizard Oz dismiss as bigoted the “they” who happen to live in all parts of Australia, whether it be inner city, suburban or regional Australia.

The pond has lived in all parts of Australia - inner city, suburban, regional, rural, Sydney, Melbourne and yes Adelaide - and the one certainty, whether viewed up close or from afar, is that those who work in the heart of the city and blather about inner-city elites (while giving every appearance of being actual inner-city elites), are merely indulging in a form of camouflage, using stereotypes to deliver a cheap, easy form of abuse, lumping all sorts of diverse people under one gormless label ...

The problem for those belonging to this sort of temple is to say anything interesting or unpredictable. Unfortunately Henderson lost that skill long ago ...

It's a measure of the reptiles desire to push this old fogey that today the Bolter picked up Henderson's piece and gave it a plug in We pay so the Left may pray together ...

What's even more remarkable is that the Bolter credits reader Peter of Bellevue Hill for drawing his attention to the piece.

Yes, not even the Bolter bothers with Henderson, but hey, when you're in a cult where everyone drinks the same Kool Aid, of course you'll do a hat tip to help out someone struggling to reach the outer suburbs, with a readership that seems not to give a toss about Polonius and his prattle.

Henderson rarely features in the lizard Oz's fickle digital revolving finger of flash fame at the top of the page, so much so that for weeks on end, the pond routinely forgets he's still writing for the rag.

But Polonius clearly has his readers.  In Bellevue Hill:

Damn you inner city eastern suburbs elitists, damn you all to hell. You're everywhere ...

Now why couldn't it have been reader Peter of Penrith? Or Benny Bakir of Blacktown?

And so to Orson Welles, with the frog and the scorpion tale occupying the first minute of the clip: