In which the bold as brass Caterists scribble about pork-barreling, perverse incentives, and stupidity ... as only the truly stupid, pork-barrelled perverse do ...

It's always good to start with a laugh, and thanks to gravel-throated Macca and Barners and David Pope, and more Pope here, the pond was flung back into the world of Mr Blue (Robert Shaw) and Mr Green (Martin Balsam) ...

Only for a moment unfortunately because the usual suspects are out and about today seeking to exploit a tragedy...

Actually just last week the pond was well within cooee of a murder that made it think of the peculiarities of the media, their distorted and distorting obsessions, the randomness of death, and the cruelty of life ...

Last week in Camperdown a teacher waiting to catch the pond's local bus was stabbed to death by a stranger ..

There's been a proliferation of flowers on the seat at the bus stop since, a locality the pond passes on a daily basis, but it was a mere blip on the mainstream media radar ...

Of course there's a clue in the evidence that was led at the local court ...

Magistrate Robert Williams asked Cahill if he was on any medication and he said he was on several drugs, including clozapine, which is an anti-psychotic medication. 

"Ah yeah ... clozapine, metformin ... stuff like that," said Cahill. 
Cahill attempted to escape from the dock as the court was returning from a brief adjournment about 12:30pm. Police prosecutor Sheena Bucknell yelled "stay where you are" as Cahill climbed over the dock. 
Three police officers restrained him, preventing him from fleeing. (more at the ABC here)

You won't find any lengthy exegesis from the dog botherer or the reptiles of Oz on the state of the Australian mental health system or any other similar difficult matters. And yet a much-loved and well-regarded teacher is dead ...

The pond was reminded of a crime show it watched about a mentally disturbed woman in California, who in 2006 killed six postal employees, and herself. It's also listed in a wiki explaining the origin of the term "going postal" ...

Throw in guns and the American health system and nirvana is just around the corner, but you won't find any of this memorialised by the dog botherer and the reptiles of Oz this anniversary day ...

But enough of disturbing matters, it's time to lighten the mood, and what better way than with a Ridley splash, as featured in the reptiles response to Paris this day ...

Ignore the demonic stare, unnerving though it is, and just decode that statement according to a dictionary definition of "multilateral", which sounds impressive but isn't, and let's repeat the thought bubble ...

Agreed upon or participated in by three or more parties, especially the governments of different countries always ends in failure ...

Uh huh. Three or more parties. So that explains why everything everybody does at every day of the week always ends in failure ...

Well, yes, and life always ends in failure, or at least death, but as we make our way to the grave do we have to have this sort of display of monstrous stupidity?

And the pond could have gone on and on about the number of cooks a chef might like to have in a well-regulated and run top-notch kitchen - a lot of cooks can make a tidy broth of simple-minded cliches - but why bother.

It's a measure of the stupidity of the reptiles of Oz that they keep on relentlessly dumbing down the discussion by heading back frequently to the well of Lomborgians and Ridleyians, but it's a smaller and smaller circle ...

Happily there are even lighter bubble-headed boobies around on a Tuesday ready to provide some comedy stylings.

Yes, it's Caterist day, and as usual, the Caterists are in solid form ...

Ah, government money.

Whenever the pond encounters the Caterists, it reflexively reaches for a yarn about quarry walls or governments pissing money against the wall on 'think' tanks ...

Let's see which one comes in handy this day ...

Well yes, speaking of governments wasting money, this seems to capture the thought in all its essential purity and logic ...

Of course if you head off to Source Watch here to take a look at the Centre's longer-term funding, it seems that this has been going on for some considerable time, with Malware an early private sector benefactor.

When you see how the system works, and what it's really on about, everything the thick-headed, muddled Caterist wombat scribbles takes on a rich, smooth, creamy layer of irony ...

Now it's easy enough to see why the pond delights in the Caterists ...

Here's a man with his paws deep in the Commonwealth pocket, and yet he manages to scribble with a straight face this sort of tosh ...

Technocrats are seldom prepared to admit to mistakes, let alone learn from them; government programs never fail because of faulty design, overreach, pork-barrelling, perverse incentives, compliance costs, mission creep or stupidity. They fail because they are underfunded. Which is why, one imagines, that Andrews’s instinctively supplements his saving plan with a demand for more commonwealth cash.

The pond has always believed that the best thieves are the ones that are as bold as brass, and the best liars are the ones dumb enough to believe their own lies ...

So when the Caterists furiously scribble about pork-barrelling, perverse incentives and stupidity, the pond dances with joy. Which proves that governments pissing money against the wall on useless things can indeed have wonderful outcomes ...

Now is there a quarry wall somewhere handy?

Speaking of dumb and dumber, the pond almost overlooked this contribution to a recent debate ...

Poor David.

Of course the Indians take a slightly different view, as might be gathered by a quick read of The Times of India's After NYT, Rupert Murdoch's newspaper takes an 'incredibly racist' dig at Indians.

But there's been an upside, because the pond always looks for an agile, innovative upside, and it came courtesy of the discovery of Bill Leak explained ...

At last many mysteries have been solved and cleared away ...

The ongoing never ending tragedy of being Bill Leak ...

So here's a cleansing sorbet, and remember to Twitter with Rowe here as he flogs stuff for Xmas ...