In which the pond contemplates many ironies, from Peter Westmore to the bromancer to a seat in the Security Council to the pitiful, tragic choices on offer to NSW voters ...

As well as a taste for homicidal rages, psychopathic murder, and holocausts, and a hatred of women's rights and certain food stuffs, the long lost lord has a wicked sense of humour, and a love of irony and hypocrisy.

And She's given them to one Peter Westmore in spades.

There's nothing else to be said after reading Catholic crusader Peter Westmore blesses daughter's gay marriage in New Zealand, except to nominate Westmore for the pond's ultimate prize, the Golden Loon award, to sympathise with the daughter, and to wonder how the NCC can bear the thought of New Zealand sliding into such a dun of unuqutuy as to rival Sodom ... or perhaps Gomorrah ...

But hark, the pond is not the only one to invoke Her in their thoughts today. This in Australia's allegedly leading newspaper:

If there was a god, She'd surely smote mightily the reptiles for this epically stupid splash of "with god on our side", which is actually just promoting a commercial game of paddling ball with bat ...

But at least it explains where the reptiles get their climate science from ... with god on their side ...

Meanwhile, it seems that a few readers were puzzled as to the answer to this question

It seems, if the pond might pose as Humpty Dumpty for a minute, a question that's easily answered. A liar must do what a professional, born liar must do, and remember the tale of the frog and the scorpion ... and please no question as to who's the scorpion in the yarn ...

And while we're on the headlines, it seems petrol heads are in mourning that some no name ning nong, a legend in his own lunchtime, has got the sack from the BBC for being a violent verbal and physical bully.

The pond only notes it because it will no doubt have caused little Timmy Bleagh deep pain and suffering - oh the ratbag petrol head rabid fundie righties do love their work place bullies and chairman Rupert - and to boast that the pond has never watched an episode of anything featuring the nonentity ... (see how we failed to mention the bully's name or his program's title?)

Speaking of people with delusions of grandeur, it was also pleasing to see that Twiggy "the cartel card man" - let the serfs live according to my stern injunctions - managed to reveal himself as a comprehensive idiot this morning, having gazed on OPEC and decided it was good and just and so:

Again there's nothing to say, except note that it shows that filthy rich folk like Twiggy - let the peasants have no fun on my card watch and eat three vegies and a little meat each day - remember arbeit macht frei - don't seem to understand much of anything to do with the law, and perhaps shouldn't be let out on the lawn, without a gaggle of legal eagle advisers in attendance, checking every word written and spoken ...

The pond is thinking about issuing its own Twiggy card rationing the number of words Twiggy might spend on any issue in a week, perhaps a month, better still a year ... but then how could he make a bid for the Golden Loon of the year award for his Twiggy card endeavours?

But with the sob and sorrowful sight of a mock turtle, the pond must once again report for duty on reptile watch.

But first a little background research is required, which will lead readers to Dr Rachel Stevens in the Sydney Morning Herald on 2nd February, 2012, scribbling No, the Fraser era was not a golden age for asylum seekers. Here's a sample:

Now the point of Stevens' piece was to swing it around to contemplate current attitudes and rhetoric:

In 1981, immigration minister Ian Macphee warned the House of Representatives that a ''boat load of illegal immigrants'' was approaching Australia ''under the guise of refugees fleeing Vietnam''. 
The following year, Macphee concluded ''that a proportion of people now leaving their homelands were doing so to seek a better way of life rather than to escape from some form of persecution''. He argued that to accept these boat people as refugees ''would in effect condone queue jumping''. 
The resettlement of the Vietnamese refugees was an unfamiliar challenge for the Fraser government, just a few years after the formal abolition of the White Australia Policy. The government was resistant, ambivalent and at times pragmatic in responding to the Vietnamese refugee crisis. 
The fact that Australia struggled with the arrival of these asylum seekers was symptomatic of an insecure nation threatened by Asian penetration, an anxiety that has influenced the national psyche since the mid-19th century. Unfortunately, this anxiety continues to inform asylum seeker policy today.

Remember that was back in 2012, and well enough known by anyone who lived through the times ...

Well yes, but you won't find any such thoughts in the bromancer's piece on the subject in the lizard Oz today, some three years after that piece appeared in Fairfax.

Instead the bromancer used the occasion, and Stevens' work to sink the boot into Malcolm Fraser. The pond was wondering when the slagging off of Fraser would begin in conservative circles - how cold he'd have to be in the ground - and the answer came quickly:

But you won't find a word about that anxiety continuing to inform asylum seeker policy today in the bromancer's piece. Instead there's just the slagging:

Now there's some interesting stuff in there, not least the way the bromancer boasts of being an activist for the NCC, the very same mob which the marvellous Westmore now chairs, and along the way there's also some wonderfully rich stuff about "doing the right thing", and the shame of calling genuine refugees economic migrants.

And a little further along there's talk of Australia "behaving decently", albeit reluctantly:

So where's the lesson Stevens drew? Where's the talk of Iraqi and Afghan refugees, wanting to flee a country turned into a mess by an axis of weevils (the very same weevils that have also helped turn Libya and Syria)? Where's the denunciation of Australia's current unusual and cruel treatment of refugees, dressed up as idle abuse of the lot of them as economic refugees? A policy that can be shared by both the major parties ... but pursued with exceptional vigour by the current government, who also set the pace in opposition ...

Will we see in a few years a headline saying Tony Abbott was no saint for Iraqi and Afghan refugees?

Not likely. You won't see any of that in the commentariat reptile columnist's column in the lizard Oz today and there's little chance it will turn up in the future...

There's a couple of other ironies that should be noted today.

One's predictable:

Well with god on our side, of course She's going to allow us to keep on burning the coal.

The other's just delicious:

Remember back in the day when you could read on an almost daily basis the nattering negativity of Abbott on such matters, including this piece in Fairfax, Scrap UN security council bid: Abbott?

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said it was not a good use of taxpayers' money in tough economic times. "There are vastly higher priorities for Australia right now than pursuing a seat on the security council," he told reporters in Melbourne, adding that dropping the bid would save $5.7 million this financial year. 
The nation was $57 billion in deficit, and heading towards $90b in debt, so spending had to be restrained, he said.

Such stupidities got him power, and now all he and his chums can hope is that people forget the stupidities ...

But not the pond, which cherishes the stupidities and the resulting back flips ...

Moving right along, the pond now turns to parochial matters, because it's only two sleeps before the pond gets to vote for the Happy Birthday party in the state election.

The Daily Terror has reached a fever pitch of excitement and has turned positively uxorious about the west (inner west latte sippers not welcome):

Why this nonsense? Why does Whittaker keep offering free hand jobs to the west, apart from the way the Terror perceives it as the demographic offering the last hope for its tabloid gutter sporting ways?

Well the Bolter's accompanying piece provides the answer:

Yes, they're all at it today:

Savva doesn't seem to appreciate the way the anti-Abbott sentiment has already rubbed off on the NSW premier.

For all the talk about Baird welcoming Abbott - he was much more talkative about that than about doing deals behind closed doors with Chinese players - the reality has played out very differently.

Abbott has been a no show during the campaign. He didn't get to speak during the launch and he's been mute ever since, such that big Mal was wheeled in to do the robocall voice for marginal seats, as can be read in Liberals snub Tony Abbott by wheeling out Malcolm Turnbull for assault on marginal state seats - if only the pond lived in a marginal Liberal seat so it could abuse the robotic big Mal and his fraudband and his support for Stasi land.

If Baird wins, it will be called a victory for Abbott, but that will be a lie.

Meanwhile, the magic water man is outraged at the pond's desire to vote for the Happy Birthday Party.

Which joyously assumes there's been no mischief or skulduggery amongst the two major parties. Like backroom deals with Chinese players, so hush hush no one dare speak its name or scheduled meeting time, or CSG licenses issued willy nilly, or electoral fraud in the central coast, or scams in Newcastle, or bottles of red wine, or just plain greedy corruption, or all the rest of the scandals that have plagued both major parties these past few years ...

What a stupid man Sheehan is. No wonder he fell for the magic water scam ...

Which leaves just time for a few cartoons on this very subject, thanks to Pope, more Pope here, and First Dog, at the Graudian here:

Now to decode this one, you first must know about Sydney's bin chickens, the noble white ibis, also known as "tip turkeys". Now read on, and if you refuse to shed a tear for NSW, why you must be a toad or a garden state hater: