In which the pond dons all kinds of fashionable hair shirts, including 'the Bolter', 'the 'Groper', 'the Promise Keeper', and the spivvy "Fear and Greeder" ...

(Above: that's a hair shirt we all wear, and more Rowe here).

The pond would like to propose to David Rowe that he also devise a Bolter hair shirt, and then the pond could wear his high fashion gear on alternate days.

Yes, the pond paid a visit to Sydney airport last night, and lordy, lordy, long absent lordy, what a state of chaos there was. It had nothing to do with getting there - or stupid Mike Baird's stupid WestConnex solution - and everything to do with the completely hopeless internal system.

The public pick up area - a minuscule handkerchief 'solution' and a place the pond avoids like the plague - had collapsed, and the back up of traffic had produced a traffic jam stretching back into O'Riordan street.

But that was nothing, nothing the pond tells ya, to the mistake, the guilty pleasure of turning on the Bolter on the radio, and enduring a wall to wall, never ending parade of Islamophobia and Aboriginalophobia.

What was perhaps the funniest thing to hear was the way the Bolter pleaded for us to admit we were all one race, a kind of melting pot of Oztrailiana when it's clear if a darkie jumped across his path, he'd bolt away in terror ...

What's that you say? Such a crude word to darken the pond's door? Well it was nothing up against the relentless snidery of the Bolter, who now seems to spend every waking moment campaigning against the blacks and any constitutional amendment, that's when he's not campaigning against Muslims and food certification and what else Islamic have you got?

Nobody seemed to notice or mention that there's also kosher certification in the land ... but that's the way it always with the Bolter. No mention of inconvenient truths ... and easy to overlook because of the much smaller market, with much better political clout ...

So when's the Bolter going to campaign against kosher food, and perhaps demand that all religious institutions be deprived of their tax free status?

In your demagogue dreaming ...

Now the pond knows there's no direct connection, but it's hard not to feel that there's some sort of vibe let loose in the ether, which finds its home in stories like Racist rant on Sydney train caught on video, passenger defends Muslim woman from tirade ...

Listening to the Bolter, his host and his talk back buddies was like being trapped in a Sydney train ...

Never mind, if there's justice in the world, the hate some make will be equal to the hate they take ...

And so to today's first oddity ...

It had all the classic marks of a classic leak ... complete with a great snap of a completely graceless man swilling claret like a hog in mush ...

And talking of "fear" and "greed" seemed to be the hallmarks of Abbott's policies in general, not just towards China ...

There's more in the Fairfax "fear and greed story", including:

The rare leak of a sensitive leader-to-leader conversation holds parallels with the "brutal realist" formula, which Kevin Rudd offered to secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2009, prompting recriminations from China and a personal apology from Ms Clinton when it was broadcast by WikiLeaks. 
Initially, Mr Abbott's comments left experts speechless when contacted by Fairfax Media. 
"Oh my goodness," said Linda Jakobson, founder of China Matters, a platform dedicated to improving the quality of public debate about China. "Fear and greed. I mean, hmm. The Prime Minister captured the bipolar nature of Australia's attitude to China."
The public airing will cause discomfort but it also encapsulates the emotional poles of Australia's most vexed international conversation.

And there was a Wilcox cartoon as back up:

But so far as the pond can see, the story didn't gain any traction. There was no social media lift-off.

Perhaps the country's inured to its hair shirt ... perhaps everyone recognised that in a land ruled by fear and greed and the Bolter on talk-back radio, talking up fear, it was no biggie, no biggie at all ...

The only interesting aspect of the story is who leaked and why, but that's the last thing you'll learn reading Fairfax ...

Meanwhile, there's also been absolutely no reaction to a genuine scandal, a genuine outrage, outside the Graudian:

You can just imagine Chris Mitchell settling back in his chair, smirking and urging his flock of bats to "fly my pretties, fly..."

What's even more outrageous than the pissing of four million dollars against the wall on Lomborg?

Why that it should be used to set up a "consensus centre", clearly named in the grand tradition of "peace is our profession" and you can't argue in the war room ...

The consensus centre? Well that makes the pond feel dissident and non-consensual right then and there ...

What next? The doofus Kevin Andrews, seen in human form and starring on Mad as Hell as he spruiked transformational change, or tautologically speaking, a changing transformation ...?

So how did Paul Johnson, allegedly the VC of the hallowed institution defend the outrage?

Sources have told Guardian Australia the establishment of the centre had come as a surprise even to senior staff in the business school, who were unaware that the centre was being established until shortly before it was announced this month.
The University of Western Australia vice-chancellor, Prof Paul Johnson, confirmed the money had been offered specifically for the centre, telling Guardian Australia it was “an opportunity that arose in discussions with the department and the minister”. 
“As we all know it is difficult to get federal dollars to flow across the Nullabor,” he said. 
“Bjørn Lomborg was in WA last year and called in at the university. He had separate conversations with the minister … I have been having conversations about this for six or seven months.”

So the Danish government de-funds Lomborg, the poodle flings money at Lomborg, and the University of WA gratefully accepts the cash flowing across the Nullabor, because hey, any cash is good cash ...

To fund an Australian Consensus Centre?

Well you could hardly call it the Australian Denialist Centre ... but at least it makes clear where the Greg Hunts and Abbotts sit in the spectrum:

The Institute of Public Affairs responded to Lomborg’s new Australian operation by saying, “Bjørn, it’s great to have you!”

Or as the Australian taxpayer said to the Bishop.  it's great to be had by you ...

So who can take the credit for facilitating all this?

Come on down Paul Johnson ...

And speaking of WA, there was also this tidbit in the Graudian:

Flights cost an average $47,000 and he's jetting in to beg for money?

By golly, the next time the pond drops its hat on King street and goes begging for donations, damn it, it's going to be a Natalie Bikicki hat ... and to hell with the expense ...

Talk about the Colin Barnett gambit. The man has been sounding increasingly weird these past few days, and for once the reptiles were in the mood for comedy, portraying the jet setter as a kind of western state peanut farmer:

Barnett explains his “Boston Tea Party’’ moment to The Australian on Sunday: 
If the GST is not resolved, Western Australia’s future is not with the rest of Australia in a financial or economic sense ... It’s not secession but it will be tension and disengagement. 
Maverick premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen pushed Queensland’s potential as a stand-alone state in the Malcolm Fraser years, claiming a Queensland currency would out­perform the deutschmark: Queensland could go it alone ... The question Queenslanders will be asking themselves will be whether the federation itself is relevant or necessary ... Queensland would run its own affairs independently. 
At a London press conference, ­Bjelke-Petersen had doubts about the federation: 
There is no such place as Australia. I am the premier of the sovereign state of Queensland and I know whereof I speak.

Indeed, indeed, and what splendid fun to see how Barnett explain it was the last time that the 'gropers would help out in an emergency, and tied himself in verbal knots explaining that what he said was not what he meant.

The net result of his splendid negotiating style?

Bring on the pumpkin scones ...

And there was this one in L'Age:

Indeed, indeed. Shocking. The sight of a politician actually keeping an election promise is a shock and a shame, an affront to the state and possibly the nation ... and certainly to Tony Abbott ...

If only politicians would re-discover the ancient art of breaking every meaningful promise made in the run up to an election, and then devising policies on the run to obfuscate and conceal said broken promises ...

Of course the bromancer and many other outraged reptiles have been right on to this matter:

Phew, thank the long absent lord there's a new contender for the worst government in our times ... what a distraction for the worst federal government in our times ...

But as seems to happen these days, all roads lead back to Bill Leak.

And the pond now has an urgent suggestion to make to the editors of the Oz.

Please put him back behind the paywall.

It's not doing you any good and it's not doing Leak any good ... and it's certainly not helping anyone who accidentally stumbles across the images you've now put outside the paywall and are giving away for free.

Like this one below ...

Oh sure it conforms to the editorial line. Oh sure it conforms to Tony Abbott's rhetoric. Oh sure the bromancer probably shared a moment with Leak over the office kool aid water kooler ...

But it's not funny, it's not sharp, it's not edgy, it's not witty, it's not clever. It's Bill Leak on the skids ...

Now if it featured the pond trying to get to Sydney airport ...

Meanwhile, here's genuine funny, side splitting, achingly real funny:

Eek, the black helicopters are circling, and world government is finally at hand as a rough beast slouches towards the east side ...