(Above: more cartoons here).
The pond thought it should start with a lunch time cartoon, combining movie lore with Trumpism, because this day Dame Slap is off demonising Triggs - how the reptiles love to hate her - and there's something in the pond which stops it from recycling the frothing, foaming fear and loathing ...
But the alternative is nattering 'Ned' Kelly ...
... and lordy, lordy, how the bloviating pontificating blowhard loves to natter ...
By golly, it's not just one cartoon, dozens are needed to get through it all without nodding off to sleep ...
Okay, after that serious front page, it's time to join the "save the racist Bill Leak" campaign ...though in his usual way, Ned won't 'fess up that this 18C carry-on is really all about the reptile right to go on being thoroughly scurrilous and deeply offensive ...
The pond has little doubt that Malware will buckle to the reptile pressure.
After all, he's folded on SSM, climate science, industrial relations, fucked broadband and is keen on turning the country into a giant coal mine, so where's the harm, especially when Ned calls him a "modest reformer" ...
After all, he's folded on SSM, climate science, industrial relations, fucked broadband and is keen on turning the country into a giant coal mine, so where's the harm, especially when Ned calls him a "modest reformer" ...
Now some might need a little help translating nattering Ned into meaningful English ... for example, this gobbet ...
... should be read this way ...
The world has changed since this law was enacted. Meanies and bastards have dared to do things to wonderful News Corp personalities, and it's just not fair. It is now being used for a subversive purpose not envisaged at the time — as a weapon of identity politics to silence, intimidate and shame the News Corp commentariat who do not subscribe to the intolerant ideology that seeks to advantage or condemn others purely arising from hurt feelings based on race - yes, that means you, you useless black bastards, ethnicity - yes, that means you, you moderate Islamics who are totally responsibile for Islamic terrorists, gender - yes, that means you, you limp wristers and flip floppers in frocks, and sexuality - yes, that means you, you short-haired crippled lesbians in love with whales ...
Now that we've sorted out the translation machine, the pond invites those who can run a marathon to do their own translation of the rest of Ned's natter...
It will be a particular help to forget history, and the way that assorted churches and pontificators of the Kelly school have twisted the law to abuse others ...
Of course there are ironies and contradictions in all this, like a recent campaign in relation to the UK ten pounder ...
But enough of all this.
After all, what's a little chemical castration between friends, as nattering Ned really gets warmed up about rights ...
After all, what's a little chemical castration between friends, as nattering Ned really gets warmed up about rights ...
Indeed, indeed. It has to be said that these cartoons certainly don't promote racial strife or bigotry ...why, dead-set, as quaint argot has it, they promote racial harmony, because that's the reptile ideology of peace, love and power to the flowers ...
Soak up the harmony, go on, sniff it up your nose ... snort it through the straw ...
Soak up the harmony, go on, sniff it up your nose ... snort it through the straw ...
Now in all this, Ned wants to reassure you not to worry about the wogs and the Jews and the rest of the ratbags. They'll take their medicine. After all, if they don't shift, a good thumping will help turn them around ...
Huzzah, and then Bill Leak can get on with the business of comparing gays to Nazis and slurring all Aboriginal men as drunks, because right at the moment, apparently it's completely impossible for him to do so ...
Huzzag, and then the reptiles of Oz can once again start publishing his cartoons, after reluctantly agreeing to stop until he'd taken a course in homophobia and racism ...
Huzzag, and then the reptiles of Oz can once again start publishing his cartoons, after reluctantly agreeing to stop until he'd taken a course in homophobia and racism ...
Oh okay, that last little bit is a pure fantasy ... the reptiles will go on being offensive because that's all they know how to do ...
Now having run a couple of examples from the abysmal pit of cartooning at the lizard Oz, perhaps it's time for a few more genteel cartoons of the NY kind ... the pond knows which kind it would rather look at while waiting on the dentist's sofa ...
Oh? A law is being abused by vexatious litigants?
ReplyDeleteA quick review of most Supreme Court decision databases for the last 5 years will show a plethora of vexatious litigation run by charlatans or twits who either have nothing better to do with their lives or who believe that the only legal tender in this country is gold or silver bullion (true story).
As for the "clear" point that Ned makes about the uncertainty about the meaning of words "humiliate" and "offence", perhaps Ned would also care to review the hundreds (if not thousands) of cases dealing with various sections of the Corporations Act ranging from the meaning of "director" to the meaning of "uncommercial".
Fact: it takes time for these things to become settled law. A lot of time.
Neddy and his News Corp chums can happily steer clear of 18C if they, *gasp*, do good journalism and accurate research and thereby rely on the 18D defences.
Of course, this won't stop vexatious people suing them - it happens everyday.
But then again, why should Ned et al worry? The Order of Lenin hunter assures us that The Lizard Oz only accepts the best journalism and editorial standards. Just ask anyone at the pub, they'll tell you!
Welcome to the law Big Ned. You're doing super (bad).
He's even wrong about the last line. It isn't really about ideology at all. That's just the window dressing to sell it to the punters.
It's really all about the sale.
"It's about eyeballs, son. We're a commercial network!"
That title, Editor at Large, for Ned is more appropriate than I thought, albeit strengthening from having the word "still" inserted between "Editor" and "at".. It then implies that he could be arrested any day now by the politically correct police.
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose you can arrest someone for just churning out boring fodder - otherwise he'd have been run in long ago.
But you do have to wonder what is in Ned's diet at the retirement village. Is he provided with a gigantic keg of Kool Aid, with nobody monitoring his usage?
In the very week when our assumptions of the rule of law and the separation of powers are in disarray he runs a piece about the system of law breaking down. But not a mention of how Brandis and the Abbott and Turnbull governments have contributed to it in attempting to humiliate and discredit our statutory office-bearers. The Solicitor-General has resigned from the untenable position he was placed in.
Any of it get a passing mention from Ned? No way. Not when there's a bit of smearing and hatred to defend. If there was any serious risk of 18C being bad law, I'd have some confidence that Darryl Williams, or whoever was his successor in the eleven years of the Howard government, would have done something to change it. They didn't.
You have correctly identified the motivation. It's all about News Ltd's right to spread a bit of Fear and Loathing on whatever takes their fancy. What was proposed, which Abbott (or possibly Credlin) of all people had enough sense (knowing how many communities wanted just such protection) to abandon.
The Bolt Amendments, as they became known, were simply not worth the trouble, especially as the inspiration for it had not bothered to check his facts before running a piece on his pet hates.
Now Ned joins in this folly. Maybe he was never as great as many imagined him to be, but he surely was once better than this. Very sad.
DeleteJeez GD,you almost had me feeling sympathy for the silly old fool with that last par.
On a true note of sympathy,someone,somewhere out there,is probably going to end up next to Neddy in a retirement home in the not too distant future. Maybe revisiting euthanasia law rather than 18C would be more appropriate.