In which the pond celebrates the nation state and a couple of world wars, thanks to Julie Bishop, with bonus Caterist outing and free Lomborgian treat ...

You can imagine the pond's state of alarm.

Everywhere all kinds of unpatriotic leftie pinko pervert commie swine, full of hate and loathing, in Fairfax and the ABC, and who knows where else, and all determined to subvert and undermine the essence of bodily fluids that has made this country great.

What's that you say?

There are bigger fish to fry, even bigger threats, an even more dire reason to be alarmed?

By golly that sounds serious. The pond wants to know more, tell me more:

Well you can get more gems at Fairfax here, but the pond couldn't manage to get past that line:

In a speech to the Sydney Institute on Monday night, Ms Bishop said the so-called Islamic State and the ideology behind it tore up the rules of nation-states that had helped moderate international conflicts for centuries.

Moderate international conflicts for centuries!

Two days on, it seems Bishop completely forgot what Anzac day was celebrating, which just so happened to be Australia's participation in an actual humungous world war, shortly to be followed by an even bigger world war.

So that's where moderating international conflicts for centuries will get you ... a couple of really moderate world wars, with the odd skirmish in between.

Oh there was this too ...

As such, it was a threat to the Westphalian system of nation-states, which was created nearly 400 years ago in Europe at the end of the Thirty Years' War and established the principle that each country had sovereignty over its territory and affairs. 
This international system had been the "foundation of humanity's efforts to build peaceful, safe and prosperous societies", Ms Bishop said.

Yes, yes, the way the British empire gave sovereignty over their territories and affairs to all their nation states, and so early in the empire's days too ... just look at India and Pakistan and all the other countries that enjoyed that sovereignty ... just like the French, the Germans, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Belgians in the Congo ...

Now how's Godwin's Law going?

Ms Bishop suggested the ideology of the Islamic State – also known as ISIL and Da'esh – was the worst the world had seen since the Nazis. She said the virulent new form of international terrorism that the group represented posed a "real threat to the … system of the nation-state".

But, but, billy goat, the Nazis embodied the system of the nation state, and wanted to turn their nation state into a decent empire like every other European power had managed, since surprisingly after the first world war, the British didn't actually get around to dismantling their empire, and handing sovereignty back to component nation states.

Conclusion? Bishop really shouldn't be let out to give speeches of an hysterical, alarmist kind at Hendo's Sydney Institute.

Never mind, her attempt to downgrade the threats of commie leftists are as water off a duck's back to the real visionaries, and so, it being Tuesday, the pond proudly presents the Caterist view of the world, which it has to be said isn't full of banks making stupid, dangerous loans, but rather, evil wicked leftists exploiting the humble bankers' weakness for a deal:

Yes only a stumble bum sitting in a Canberra think tank can be fully alert to the politics of envy, a shocking form of politics which sees the serfs resenting the rich eating cake. 

The peasants are revolting, and of course it's all the fault of those dangerous leftists that Bishop wrongly sought to diminish:

Dear sweet long absent lord, Britain and Australia in ruins, and all this jibber jabber about compassion, and where will it end?

Why in some kind of austerity aversion, whereas everyone should be wearing the patented Nick Cater hair shirt!

Detail of an initial 'N'(isi) of the Virgin Mary giving St Thomas a hair shirt to wear; the rubric above reads 'nr dame vest un here a sceint tomas' ('Our Lady puts a hair shirt on St Thomas'); from the De Brailes Hours, England (Oxford), c. 1240 - see here for more). 

Sorry, where were we? The pond often gets to feeling a little faint, and giddy and light-headed on Caterist day.

Were we talking about naughty leftists and wonderful bankers and the need for aversion to austerity aversion?

What's the bet that damned leftists are mounting challenges of the most shocking kind in every damn country on the planet!

Where's your nation states now Ms Bishop? Totally stuffed, it seems ...

And there you have it, as meanwhile the noble Coalition goes about the thankless task of shovelling the moola into the pockets of the rich end of town, and what thanks do they get?

Nada, zip. It's so unfair. What better way to fix up the budget than by shovelling a couple of hundred thousand or so down the throat of the Menzies Research Centre ...  and the odd million into Lomborg's consensual centre .... and where's the gratitude, apart from a constant pandering to the coalition by the Caterists, and an assurance by the Lomborgians that there's a lot more to think about than climate science ...

Finally, since somehow the Lomborgians got into the mix, there's a bonus this day, and the pond owes it all to Media Watch. 

No doubt Paul Barry thought he was making an incisive point in the matter of Bjorn Lomborg and making a masterful display of his objectivity when he said this, here:

...Lomborg is not a contrarian for nothing. And after years of championing fossil fuels, this is what he wrote in Canada’s Globe and Mail just ten days ago. 
It’s time to stop subsidizing fossil fuels.  The billions of dollars that governments could save from phasing out fossil fuel subsidies could be spent on providing better health, education and nutrition, which could benefit hundreds of millions of people. — The Globe and Mail, 17th April, 2015 
Getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies in Australia would save at least $9 billion a year ... and cut carbon emissions. 
And one Australian political party thinks it would be a terrific idea. So would that be the Liberals, the Nationals, or Labor? Actually, none of the above, it is the Greens.

Actually Lomborg has for years said it's time to stop subsidising fossil fuels ... provided that, at the same time, the subsidising of green and renewable energy is also stopped.

It's just another part of the contrarian confusionista's tricks, and Lomborgian ruses on subsidies had already been done to death long before Barry caught up with them - for example, Lomborg's piece in the WSJ in 2013, which can be found linked to and with a commentary on it here.

The pond has no idea why Barry chose to throw his glib, superficial hat into the ring, though the pond understands that too much time spent in company of reptiles can lead to a condition that's known as "parietal eye", which allows for a proper reptilian view of the world.

The pond has been wondering how long before the reptiles would break from cover, and give their favourite son a kind word, and it happened today.

And what do you know, it's those damned greenie lefties again, and lordy lordy did Julie Bishop get it wrong:

So what's the evidence that there will be blather about evidence-based research, yet when all's said and done, evidence of such evidence-based research is pretty scant, whereas contrarian obfuscation is pretty rampant?

Well here's the evidence, and yes, the Fairfaxians and the ABC are the villains yet again. Someone failed to tell them that Paul Barry joined the Lomborg party, and what's the bet that guff about fossil fuel subsidies will get another run?

Uh huh. It's that old saw, teach the controversy, debate the debates, talk up the reason, and all while emanating a fog of confusion and contrarianism for well over a decade, thereby ensuring that saucy doubts and fears see will sapped and nothing done ...

And if you happen to point it out you're being hysterical and anti-democratic and a fascist stomping on impure thinking and harmless discussion, because using value-laden language like that is the reasonable way to conduct a well-reasoned debate ...

Well played Mr Barry ... did you think that they'd notice your attempt at Lomborg love? And even if they had, don't you understand you're still a part of that axis of weevils, the ABC, Fairfax and the twitterati? Foolish fellow traveller ...

(Below: and more cartoons for rabbits and pigeons at the New Yorker here).