In which the pond reveals astonishing and disturbing news about the reptiles beavering away at the Lizard of Oz ...

Above, the Currish Snail today, highlighting the excellent use of metadata by the local officers who dare to use "intelligence" in their job descriptions ...

Well, reading blogs is just too tedious, isn't it? Such hard yards. How about lunch?

The newspapers are full of it today, though the pond callously sees it as just another example of the Darwin Awards at work, and can only manage a shred of interest in those who were killed ...

Meanwhile, also on the front page of the Currish Snail came this:

And it was all over the digital editions, in the Snail and the Daily Terror, spreading like a plague as any story does in the octopi Murdoch press:

The story produced a couple of nice lines:

Mr Turnbull was praised by some of the Liberals he visited. 
Mr Laming said he was “clearly one of the most marketable products in the Coalition” who had a message of “opportunity and positivity”. 
The LNP’s loss of support in the state had “very foreboding patterns with the federal situation”, Mr Laming said. “We’re still smarting from the Campbell Newman catastrophe,” he said. 
“So what they’re really looking for from Canberra … is some acknowledgment that we could have done better and there is a clear path forward.” 
Mr Roy said Mr Turnbull’s speech on the Budget showed “Cabinet ministers are out talking about the future of our country and the economy”. 
In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Turnbull said Treasurer Joe Hockey’s suggestion to allow people to dip into super to buy a home was a “thoroughly bad idea” but yesterday he said the speech was “not at all” meant as a criticism.

What a slippery snake in the grass big Mal is ... look how the young and frisky one ducks and weaves in Fairfax, while introducing fraudband, killing off community television, and smiling benignly on new metadata surveillance state ...

But as usual, the pond's tour of duty must involve the reptiles, and the pond came away from the recent Tyrannoboltersaurus v. Reptile raptors of Oz smack down with a heavy heart.

Oh sure it was fun while it lasted, but much damage was done, and the pond often faints at the sight of blood.

It seems, judging by the Bolter's correspondents, that the reptiles of Oz have gone soft. Gone Fairfax, gone ABC, gone rabid leftist, worst of all taken on a greenie tinge.

There's only room for a few of these correspondents, but the pond is eternally grateful to the Bolter for pointing out this alarming turn of events, and for celebrating dissident readers who are unsubscribing in droves.

Yes, there's nothing like the sight of a Murdoch columnist ruining Murdoch's business interests:

And so on and endlessly on, wild eyed denunciations of the reptiles, calls for people to unsubscribe, and the Bolter hosting vipers in the nest, striking at the heart of reptile land.

Oh and there was this, a fine and fair indication of just how barking mad the Bolter readership is:

Ah that Jewish blood is everywhere, ruining everything ... even Adolf himself ... Perhaps that's what David Rowe had in mind this morning, here:

Naturally, as a result of all the warnings, the pond was on maximum alert for any sign of deviations, and what do you know, up popped that fiendish leftist, possibly Stalinist, David Crowe, who scored first possie on the digital splash of doom:

Dear sweet long absent lord, could it be? Have the reptiles gone greenie left, or possibly Marxist/Communist? Is the lizard Oz a haven for Fairfax and ABC wannabes?

Let's forensically examine the evidence:

Not looking good. That illustration, for starters, that shows Fairfax tendencies. You know, like all the wretches you can find at Fairfax cartoons here:

On and on the leftist Crowe ranted:

Disney on ice! And we all know who Goofy is! Though there are behind the scenes reports of fierce arguments between jolly Joe and the Rabbit as to who gets to wear the costume on any given day ...

Oh dear. Big Mal on the move, jolly Joe careless with prawns, or should that be pawns, and it seems everyone is getting ready to go off to a funeral ...

So there you go. Turn to the Fairfaxians today and what do you get? A blatant, naked attempt to imitate the reptiles!

Shame on you James Massola. If you want to write that sort of Good government starts when, exactly? guff (with forced video), you should get a decent job with a decent set of rabid leftie greenie Stalinist reptiles. Get a job at the lizard Oz!

The cheek of it, recycling all of David Crowe's talking points and then borrowing from Niki Savva:

With the federal budget just eight weeks away, it remains unclear how Abbott, Hockey and co will keep the twin, seemingly contradictory, promises of more money in families pockets and a budget that continues the task of fiscal repair. 
How's that for good government?

From now on, if the pond wants to read ABC Fairfaxian views, the choice is clear ... forget it Fairfaxians, the Tyrannoboltersaurus has got it right, first choice must be the reptiles beavering away for the leftist Lizard of Oz.

What a revelation, and on Friday the thirteenth of all days.

Why there's just time to celebrate the brick with eyes leaving the PUPs - who let the brick out? - and time to thank the correspondent pointing out yet another in a string of interminable Greg Huntisms in the Graudian's Green Climate Fund confirms Australia has no direct say in contribution spending:

Announcing Australia would provide $200m to the fund late last year Tony Abbott said the funding would be “strictly invested in practical projects” and environment minister, Greg Hunt, said Australia was providing the money “on the condition it will be spent within the region for our priorities”.  
“We set the terms of our engagement and those of our involvement, and those terms are very clear: support for the Asia Pacific, a focus on rainforests, a focus on combating illegal logging.” 
“The difference here is that we’re able to target what we’re doing to the region. So on our terms, in our time, in a way which protects the rainforests of the area, our priorities which don’t just help reduce emissions, but they protect the iconic species,” Hunt said. 
But in an interview with Guardian Australia, the fund’s executive director, Héla Cheikhrouhou, said decisions about disbursement of the $10bn already pledged to the fund would be made by the board, according to a single, clear set of guidelines and priorities. Individual contributors would not be able to dictate where “their” money was spent, although they would be able to track exactly how the fund, as a whole, was performing in their areas of interest.

Either a professional liar or a professional fool, or quite possibly both ...

Oh and we should acknowledge that the driest of the Fairfax rags is now competing with the reptiles of Oz in leftist thinking.

Th Finsters put this story on their front page:

And some wag came up with this one and stuck it at the top of the digital page:

And that's just the beginning of jolly Joe's thought bubble.

And somehow the pond ended up on this ship of fools without even buying a ticket, and therefore unable to get a refund.

Time for a Pope cartoon while the pond contemplates the ineluctable mystery of maintaing ties to the land to ensure land rights succeed in any action, while being moved off the land and thereby not having any ties to the land ...

May we all survive the black cat and the ladder today, not to mention the ship of fools, to enjoy the weekend tomorrow, and more Pope here: