Proudly godless ...

A correspondent kindly sent along this clipping from the god-fearing Xian reptiles in this weekend's rag.

And then a correspondent noted that the family of Richie Benaud had the grace, style and wherewithal to decline the pomposity of a state funeral, and instead settled for a private farewell.

All class ...

It reminded the pond of this celebration of Benaud:

Dapper and eloquent, Benaud revolutionised a boring game for a new era and re-made an outgunned Aussie XI into a dynamic squad playing great cricket for all the right reasons. On the field, shirt open to the waist, he pioneered the ecstatic congratulations that greet a wicket, appalling purists at the time, but ushering in the fervid celebrations of today. Off field, he steered clear of politics, cards and wankerdom, working part-time as a police reporter for The Sun and pursuing his passions for music and wine. His only religion was cricket. (here).

Indeed. 

Actually the pond doesn't care too much whether Benaud was Calathumpian or Zen Buddhist or any other religion.

He didn't trail his coat, and he didn't spend time trying to turn politics into some kind of religious spectacle.

Which brings us back to the reptiles, currently mining the story of the godless greenies for all its worth ...

You'll have noted that the clipping above says "continued on Page 6" and the pond just had to know ... so here it is ...

Now the pond has already been down this path before, and the reptiles strange and frantic attempts to appeal to fundamentalist Xians by waving the godless greenie bogeyperson at them, and it has to be said that Mark Coultan does an admirable job of conflating belief with policy.

What's interesting is the way this story is filed, in the online digital edition, under the tag "Climate".

WTF? What's godlessness got to do with climate science?

Well the reptiles, as everyone knows, are on a crusade, but let's get back to the data and finish off the story of the wicked, evil atheists (remember child, there's a nasty step mother in every decent fairy story):

What's alarming is the way Coultan also seems to imply that Christian voters are, to put it politely, dumb fucks, or to put it impolitely, don't belong to the knowledge elite and in terms of a decent education, are pretty well clueless.

Never mind, let the demonisation continue. And let it be noted that Tamworth is full of anti-greenie fundamentalists, which might explain why the pond shifted to richer greenie fields ... Oh Tamworth, Tamworth, what a heartbreak town you are ...

But wait a second, not so long ago, Tamworth regularly helped elect Tony Windsor, a cad routinely demonised by the reptiles for being a sensible and astute independent politician, and a man the pond could have quite happily voted for ...

It's a funny old world, and none so dense as the reptiles, and so the pond will remain proudly godless ...