In which the pond joins Chairman Rupert in wondering about the fate of the new enlightenment ...

(Above: David Rowe with a loving portrait of a self-obsessed bunch of rogues and thieves and more Rowe here).

It's a busy and exciting time for the reptiles.

And the mood is "relief".

That veteran knob polisher, hagiographer, and forelock tugger, Denns 'the bouffant one' Shanahan sums up the mood:

What a relief!

Better still, the reptile editorialist at the lizard Oz has an explanation for all the recent problems.

It's all the fault of Fairfax.

Oh sure, you already knew this, if you read the paranoid, navel-gazing ranting of the rabid ratbag reptiles, but as the pond is a bear of little brain, and just loves repetitive games, this morning's editorial is simply entrancing.

Of course the pond never pays any attention to the polls, polls come and go, there's only one poll and that's at the ballot box, until you need to use a poll to bash Fairfax for doing a poll:

Indeed. It's true Abbott is a disappointment, but then if you're a self-harming reptile, you just love disappointment.

But now the disappointment is all done and dusted and the ship of state sails on to the next iceberg, and don't you worry about the way all you have left is a short term memory that runs for a day or two.

There's simply no point in having long term memory or a dim awareness that after next week, there'll be next month and a budget.

Now's the time to hate on progressives, and enthusiastically endorse bully boy wedge politics.

Yes because being an attack dog bully boy wedger is the way to conduct politics, run the country and save the economy.

But after the fun, let's get down to some serious analysis.

Did we mention Fairfax?

Uh huh. Wicked Fairfaxians, as the reptiles keep pounding on the old terror drum again.

As "khaki" Abbott goes about the business of withholding a pay rise while sending soldiers into peril:

Yes, that couldn't be announced last week because of all the brain spasms by the unilateral warrior sending troops off to the world's hot spots to sort them out ...

But what's this? The Daily Terror has already had an attack of the nervous nellies and the collywobbles and the vapours?

Intelligence?

We need senior intelligence operatives to warn the Terror about that risk?

Stay stout-hearted reptiles, the armchair general will work his magic and all will be well ...

Meanwhile, as the reptiles berate Fairfax, the government prepares to institute a regime which will see metadata used to browbeat journalists and whistleblowers.

Talk about the dumb frogs keeping company with scorpions, but then, if the pond can be forgiven a tasteless lapse regarding Godwin's Law, that's the way it worked for the media in Germany in the 1930s too ... (and let's not forget it's both sides of the aisle that loves to persecute whistleblowers and journalists who run their stories).

Phew, just time for a refreshing Pope (and more Pope here):

Oh it's a full and busy day, thanks to everything being back to normal.

Why there's one of the world's greatest climate scientists dropping his scientific endeavours to brief the world on how the economy is in spiffing shape:

Yes, the budget's in tremendous shape, and there's absolutely no budget crisis or emergency, and there's no need for any cutting of any kind, maybe just a little trimming here and there, and the reptiles are just so excited at all the good news they've put it at the top of the digital page:

Yes, the deficit might be blossoming, but we all love flowers ... so just enjoy the bloom.

What's that you say? The contradictions and hypocrisy are staggering? Oh steady on, there's nothing wrong with a decent deficit ... and please, no talk of black holes, unless it's in relation to the majesty of the universe ...

What's that you say Moorice?

Oh dear, we'll all be rooned, and all it seems, thanks to Tony Abbott's desire to cling on to power ...

Today of course is also the day that the Caterists are out and about in force:

Actually there should be more to reading newspapers than reading the offal offered by bears of little brain, unproductively slouching in research centres and think tanks.

The Caterists are now in a terminal condition of profound stupidity, repeating the same mantra - government bad, private sector good - copiously borrowed from American sources, while blathering on about the need to get people back to work.

There's not a word, not a hint of awareness in the Caterist ramble, of what was exposed and what was revealed in the Four Corners' report on the jobs racket in Australia.

The Jobs Game disappeared without a trace into the ether, but so long as fatuous geese like the Caterists keep squawking, the pond will keep linking to it, and wondering when some attention might be paid.

And so to some more excellent news:

Yes, she's coming baaack, and the story is at the NYT here.

It reminded the pond of just how loyal the Chairman is to his faithful tribe. Doesn't matter what you say or do, or how wrong it might be, once you're in the kingdom and you keep on fawning, the despot will show a way to care ...

It also reminded the pond of what an expert climate scientist the Chairman is.

But after his most recent foray into climate science, a plaintive tweet followed:

Indeed, indeed. After the profound stupidity cultivated by Fox Noise and Murdochian newspapers around the world, what did happen to the new enlightenment?

Totally fucked, it would seem ...

But wait, thanks to the chairman and his newspapers, the pond has also been trying its hand at climate science.

How about this?

And what about the news from sweet little Boulia?

Here's the charts from News Corp's Endless Summer which removed the need for the pond to do any field work:

Using the patented Chairman Rupert understanding of science, the pond twittered a thesis from this data.

Just flying over sweet little Boulia, Queensland. A month of above average temperatures. Global warming! Ok, call it it climate change. Can we have honest debate, and if true how bad and how much fault of humans?

Oh okay, the pond knows that's sounding just as stupid, inane and senile as the chairman. But isn't senility an amazing thing?

The pond knows it shows an understanding of science down there with the medievalism that claimed the earth couldn't be round because look, there's the horizon and it's level ...

But at least the pond can answer the question as to what happened to the new enlightenment.

It disappeared down the alimentary canal of Tony Abbott, Rupert Murdoch, Graham Lloyd and the reptiles of Oz.

Kudos for Media Watch holding its ground against the luddites here.

The attached documents make for remarkable fun:

• The Acoustic Group and Pacific Hydro agree that the study was not a scientific study. 
• The Acoustic Group and Pacific Hydro agree that the report does not recommend or justify a change in regulations.
• The Acoustic Group and Pacific Hydro agree this was not a health study and did not seek or request any particulars as to health impacts. Therefore, we cannot enter into a debate about health issues or health impacts that have been raised in the media and the written questions.

And so on.

There's where your new enlightenment went.

Down the sewer that the reptiles have reserved for the dumping of decent reporting on science ....

Now we return to the impending fascist state, thanks to First Dog on the Moon, and more First Dog here.

Take that enlightenment, and remember, we've got your metadata (click to enlarge, or see it large at the Graudian)...