Speaking of dust motes, politicians, Das Abbott and exotic creatures like Greg 'walri' Hunt and le scinque ... all avec à langue bleue?

And so to the sequel to the re-boot:

Viva la scinque! And so say all of us, and let's not forget earlier outings in this splendid series of shows:

And remember there's more Rowe here, and the pond begins to wonder, yet again, when the cynicism and despair that infected that resolute submarine captain, Herr Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, der Alte (Jürgen Prochnow) - as he began to wonder at the point of the claustrophobic world of submariner fighting - would begin to surface again in the world of reptiles...

And lo, look over there, a great white whale - to mix the metaphors - swims into view, shoots out a gigantic spout of warm used air from its lungs, and the new race for the leadership is officially on ...

Ah the spirit of the black knight.

So what does Savva have to say? Well it's gloom, gloom, doom, more Python - we live in Pythonish times - and a canvassing of the candidates, as the question and the can is ultimately kicked down the road until Canning ...

Between slim and zero! But of course if it's a win in Canning, even a narrow squeak, then hearts might go pitty pat and surge, and then perhaps Das Abbott can ...

Then it's on to the question of the candidates, and the pond began to feel just like that zen koan:

Buddha said: "I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons." (and more koans here).

Dust motes! Bricks and pebbles! Tattered rags! I perceive the teachings of Das Abbott as the illusion of a half-baked magician not up to the task of a two year old's birthday party ...

Yes, it's ransacking the runes, fossicking through the tea leaves, checking the length of the line on the palm, contemplating the cards time, a serpentine dance of despair which will in the end leave no trace of Das Abbott ... with a punch-line at the end ...

Yep, the best hope in Canning is not to have Abbott in Canning ...

And if that logic is followed, the best hope in the general election is not to have Abbott in the general election. And so the game begins, in a muted way, because the eternally optimistic reptiles hope for change, for improvement, for a new course to be set, for the captain to steer the sub to calmer waters ...

It's hard not to feel a little zen about it all - especially as the pond contemplates the Billistas in the family wing, and as the reptiles begin the brooding and the hand-wringing, and the contemplate their bare, riven cupboard.

It seems that even triple strength kool aid can't staunch the rising tide of despair ....

I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a bully boy, and the rise and fall of Abottian beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons.

And so to a pivot, because the pond has been vastly amused by the current meme war being waged against Greg Hunt, he and his department having caused the current scinque muck-up which has led to the talk of vigilantes and activist lawfare and all the other hysterical nonsense doing the reptile rounds.

Here's a sample:

Of course it's hardly news that Hunt is a bald-faced liar, and that it's all true, from the walri to Lateline, and as always google is the pond's friend.

Head off to Lateline here, and you get to read:

We do believe there is a role for an emissions trading scheme, we propose it, we helped design it, we helped bring it into being and we don't walk away from that. 
We do oppose the concept of a meaningless new petrol tax which will simply bring household pain without any emissions gain at all. And in terms of these other items, the Government needs to be up front.

And so on and so forth:

GREG HUNT: There is quite a difference here. We would be putting in an emissions trading scheme and we're not opposed to an emissions trading scheme because it is important and price can be effective. But we take a very different view in relation to a new tax on petrol, something which will simply be deferred until after the election, and that tax won't be effective. So not long ago we were being criticised mercilessly by the Government for proposing an excise offset. They have now adopted our logic but they're only doing it for the short term. And you can tell they made up the figure just to get through an electoral cycle. 
LEIGH SALES: You as you're just mentioned have already pledged to cut the fuel excise by five cents a litre. Do you intend to match the Government on the cent for cent proposal and then add a five per cent discount on top of that? 
GREG HUNT: Correct. we in fact were the ones that proposed, we were criticise for, but we wanted to propose the petrol excise offset, it's something we believe is the right thing to do. It corresponds with the position in the rest of the world where there are no new net taxes on petrol. And there is a strong economic case for a five cents a litre discount. So those two items are complementary. We stand by them. We stand for lower petrol prices and what we see now is a government which for all its pre-election rhetoric stands for higher petrol prices.

Uh huh.

(All those links in blue here).

They all do it, on both sides of the house, but now the cycle is much shorter, and the lies and the follies return for a haunting that much more quickly.

Big Mal and his love of copper is just one example, but Hunt's the most egregious of them all, an unscrupulous flip flopper, too thick to realise that people notice his penguin-like behaviour as he vigorously argues white is black, before turning around to argue black is white.

Which reminds the pond of that fine example of penguin logic.

No doubt you can Greg Hunt many other examples ...