In which the pond does a few bibs, bobs and a dribby drabby dog botherer ...

The pond had thought of doing a bits and bobs TGIF lunchtime edition.

After all, it's surely worth noting that the barking mad Bettina Arndt has fully settled into her natural Spectator habitat ... scribbling this sort of nonsense ..

There must be a way of giving enthusiastic support for rightful claims for tolerance and understanding to minority groups without being bullied into absurd policies which subvert the needs of the general population.

There must be a way? How about send them up shitless, that's always great fun ... oh, and show them indulging in blood-sport warfare..

But make sure you contort the body to avoid showing the cock. It's the discreet conservative way ...

Then there was this from Michael Gove, found at the Graudian here ...

Gove’s flow of answers only dried up when he was asked about reports that Murdoch was present when he interviewed Trump for the Times, although Gove did indicate it could have been the case. “The best thing to say I think, in fairness is, um, in securing the interview, I think the fact that it was the Times newspaper and the fact that we had the – what’s the word ... I think it’s probably better for me not to go into how the interview arose or how it came about but I think it’s entirely fair for people to make a set of conclusions or assumptions about that,” he said, somewhat cryptically.

Somewhat cryptically?

As abstruse as anyone with their head stuck up their bum, while serving as an MP and shamelessly pocketing an abundance of cash in the paw from the chairman ...

And then there was a bunch of scientists ready to declare war on the carp and mocking alarmists ... also in the Graudian here ...

Barwick, who has been dubbed “The Carpinator” by the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, and is an enthusiastic supporter of the project, has been given two years to develop the carp control plan and provide a detailed risk assessment to the federal government.... 
Latrobe University senior ecology lecturer Dr Susan Lawler, who is based on the Murray River, said Lighten and van Oosterhout “don’t understand the Australian perspective”. “The reason they are terrified of it going wrong is because they don’t understand how terrified we are that all the native fish in Australia are going to die off because of carp,” Lawler said. “There’s an ecological disaster going on right now.”

Indeed, indeed. Where's the harm? Look at the positive results that have already been produced by solid scientific experimentation ...

Why soon enough the entire Murdoch stable of carping carp could be wiped out ... like the sugar cane bug ... if only.

And then there was the very concept of bits and bobs, which the pond much prefers as 'bibs and bobs', though it will also allow dribs and drabs ... which it's convincingly suggested here refers to pocket change ... (dribs and drabs is in the Oxford here).

But the outbreak of civil war has made the pond turn back to the local shallow pool ... what with Erica out of the gates to argue with Matthias and every living journalist repeating the mantra ...

The reptiles of Oz rushed the dog botherer to the scene of the wrecking, undermining and sniping ...

Very bad, very sad ... (insert the Donald's voice here).

Of course it was a chance to give the Bolter and Sky News another go (a week with Foxtel in the house, and not a single viewing of a single channel!):

Oh pray tell, dog botherer, what about this grab bag of policies, beyond your noting that they sound singularly excellent and useful? What cruciality is to be discovered?

Now it's not the pond's business to carry on about immigration and housing prices - others have debunked Dick Smith types, as at SBS here.

And as for the rest, as soon as the dog botherer says they're good, they must be suspect, given that Abbott talked this sort of talk before, and fell down in a flaming heap of follies.

But the pond has bigger fish to fry than Abbott offering a crooked path to the right, because after that bit of bib bobbery by the dog botherer, a genuine drib of drab, a curious thing happened ...

Well yes ... but also, to bolster the dog botherer piece, the reptiles dragged in another video (no hot link, screen cap) and an extended transcript of the dog botherer talking to camera on a channel the pond never watches (no hot link, no need)...

Bizarre ...

It's bad enough that the reptiles routinely recycle Q and A.

Now lazy dogs like the dog botherer can type up a few pars, and  then, never mind the short weight, append a transcript from their Foxtel appearance, and there's your bib and bob, drib and drab for the day ...

This is where journalism and the reptile commentariat have reached?

Of course in all that dog botherer blather, there's nothing there that couldn't have been said in a short image ...

Good old Aesop.

Meanwhile the siren song of the circus abroad still calls, so here's a final bit and bob ...

Spruiking alternative facts for the Donald is part of a portfolio?

Well this Vox clip is old and went off, but it's just another bib and bob ..