In which Dame Slap does the usual refugee beat-up ...

Meanwhile, on another de-Devined planet ...

That seems about right, if as reported. After killing a cop, some 18 hours to give up, and then taken out ...

It's not a return to the bad old days of Roger Rogerson and Victorian cops roaming around like hit squads, nor a jump-to-it demand from the likes of the vitriolic Devine for Islamic blood to flow in the streets like the Peel river in flood ...

Meanwhile, speaking of other planets ...

Ah we can't have sensible or moderate. Not when the dog botherer's barking at the moon ...

It never seems to occur to minor Iraq war criminals like the dog botherer that they might be patronising the public, or that it might be in everyone's interest to protect national harmony. 

Nope, when your business model requires continual aggro, hate, fear and loathing, it's always time to promote national discord and national disharmony ... and for that the dog botherer's at the head of the pack of howling reptiles.

Speaking of howling reptiles, it's time to turn to Dame Slap and wouldn't you know it, it's time for the usual refugee beat-up ...

Now the pond doesn't know the individual circumstances in each case, and therefore will refrain from commenting on, or arguing about them. That's the point of having independent bodies to consider such matters ...

But it is worth considering the consistent way that the reptiles demonise, promote fear and loathing, and produce the sort of Eric Lobbecke sketch which precedes Dame Slap going right off ... Bill Leak might have been lost to the world, but the spirit lives on ...

Let's face it, if the cartoon below had been a portrait of a Jew, the phones wouldn't have stopped ringing for days ... but relax, it's just some Ahab the Arab dressed with lifejacket because that's what you need for a jetset lifestyle...

What the pond can also add is that it hopes that the reptiles and the mutton Dutton keep going with this line of attack. The results are already promising ...

The full story is at The Conversation here ...

1.6%! Oh there's a fine point there ...

Meanwhile, Dame Slap keeps on trying to fill the coffers of GetUp by maintaining the mutton Dutton rage ...

Yes, here's hoping that the mutton Dutton keeps shaking his head in disbelief, and Dame Slap keeps channelling his rage, because GetUp is busy raising funds, and every little bit helps ... including this last little bit of Dame Slap doing her best to promote disharmony in classic dog botherer style ...

What's the bet the Fairfaxians have committed yet another thought crime and outraged Dame Slap?

And while the pond has refrained from commenting on the individual cases, there is one line that invariably produces a comment, and it comes with that condescending line "Bleeding-heart faux compassionistas, be they in Labor, the Greens or on the AAT, should try to better understand our history."

Fortunately the pond isn't required to be politically correct, and so can cheerfully say, oh just get fucked, and shove that "faux" crap deep in a place where the sun doesn't shine ...

The notion that Dame Slap is keen on immigration from certain parts of the world is as absurd as the notion that Gary Johns has a kind word for moderate Islamics ...

The splash is of course exactly why Gary Johns and the reptiles of Oz are a problem.

"Islam is a problem" is a bit like the pond suggesting that "Catholicism is a problem". 

Actually there are moderate Catholics - the homosexual priest in the extended family is really quite sympathetic to the notion of gay marriage, for example. There are moderate Islamics out and about, and they don't threaten the pond's or even western liberty in general ...

Moderate religious followers, rather like moderate secularists, can bump along in a rough sort of way. Some even enjoy a drink or a hint of bacon, in much the same way as the pond used to titillate itself by mixing up fabrics. 

It's the fundamentalists and the extremists, the jihadists issuing fatwas like "Islam is a problem" that are the real problem, because they allow no shades, no varieties, no diversity ...

Whichever way you look at it, these sorts of fundie ratbags are the problem...

Now this sort of rant deserves a more detailed response than the pond has time to offer. In any case, the pond isn't in the business of defending any religion, especially those who have a fundamentalist streak, of the kind to be found in the Catholic Boys' Daily, in L. Ron Hubbard and in Islam.

And the pond has already written today about fundamentalist Islamics, and wished that the reptiles might address the elephant in the Saudi Wahhabist room ....

Is there some reason it never gets mentioned?

Oh dear. That might be a problem. The foreign press baron always willing to do a deal ...

So what's the chance Wahhabism might turn up in the world of Johns?

Hoping for a mention of Wahhabism is probably about as optimistic as hoping for a mention of persecution of TG and gay folk by Christians here, in the United States and elsewhere ...

Apparently it's okay to have a go at Islamics, and dress them all up as fundamentalist, when plainly that's not the case, while ignoring the rather large mote in the eye of other religions ...

But that's the business of useless fundamentalist idiots always wanting to promote disharmony ...

Never mind, last time, the pond attempted to provide an excuse for the recent talk of "clean" coal, which is much the same as talking of the clean cool taste of tar in the lungs after a fine smoke.

Why bother? Why not just run a cartoon montage?

In which the pond lobs a variety of balls out of court ...

There is no Jehovah, there is Yahweh, there is no Allah, and sob, there isn't even a genuine spaghetti monster, the aliens of Roswell are suspect, while the E-meter is a fraudulent use of electricity ... and having ensured that this blog and its author would be caned, or more likely jailed in Indonesia,  there is the ABC Law Report asking Is Indonesian pluralism under threat?

It is, of course, under more than threat, it's in dire peril, especially in the area of gay and women's rights, and blasphemy laws and basic common sense and courtesy to minorities, including the Chinese ...

If the pond had to fault the program, it's because it failed to mention one of the key reasons for the shift towards fundamentalism, spelled out at The Atlantic here ...

Since 1980, Saudi Arabia has devoted millions of dollars to exporting its strict brand of Islam, Salafism, to historically tolerant and diverse Indonesia. It has built more than 150 mosques (albeit in a country that has about 800,000), a huge free university in Jakarta, and several Arabic language institutes; supplied more than 100 boarding schools with books and teachers (albeit in a country estimated to have between 13,000 and 30,000 boarding schools); brought in preachers and teachers; and disbursed thousands of scholarships for graduate study in Saudi Arabia. All this adds up to a deep network of Saudi influence. 
 “The advent of Salafism in Indonesia is part of Saudi Arabia’s global project to spread its brand of Islam throughout the Muslim world,” said Din Wahid, an expert on Indonesian Salafism at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta.

At the heart of this Wahhabism is a completely Saudi-funded university in South Jakarta, the Institute for the Study of Islam and Arabic (LIPIA):

LIPIA’s doors opened in 1980. Its ostensible purpose is to spread the Arabic language, and there’s not a word of the country’s official language, Bahasa Indonesia, on its campus—not a bathroom sign, not a library book. Tuition at LIPIA is free for all its 3,500 students. Music is considered bid’ah, an unnecessary innovation, and is prohibited, along with television and loud laughter. Men and women do not interact; classes of male students attend live lectures on one floor while female students watch the same lecture, live-streamed, on a separate floor.

The Donald's powerful stand on this sort of issue?

Bow and scrape and kneel ...

And how does all this connect to fundamentalist jihadist Margaret Court?

Why did that line in the splash, "Tennis, free speech not connected" irritate the pond so?

Well there are obvious examples, such as Indian tennis player Sania Mirza daring to exercise her right to free speech, and then coping a fatwa ...

Issued by Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui, a leading cleric with the little-known Sunni Ulema Board, the religious order demanded that Mirza, a practicing Muslim, stop wearing "indecent" clothes to play tennis. Instead of standard-issue t-shirts and skirts, the board ruled, she should wear long tunics and headscarves, like a group of female Iranian badminton players. Or else. (Vice here).

If anyone can be bothered, tennis falls under this sort of fundamentalist ruling, which purported to cover sports of the soccer, volley-ball, table-tennis, badminton kind:

1 – They should be free of gambling, i.e., betting between the players. 
2 – They should not form an obstacle to the obligatory remembrance of Allaah, or to prayer, or to any obligatory act of worship, such as honouring one’s parents. 
3 – They should not take up a lot of the player’s time, let alone taking up all of his time or causing him to be known among the people for that, or becoming his job, because then there is the fear that the aayah (interpretation of the meaning) “Who took their religion as an amusement and play, and the life of the world deceived them. So this Day We shall forget them” [al-A’raaf 7:51] may become applicable to him. The last condition does not have a set limit, but should be referred to what is customary among the Muslims; whatever they regard as excessive is not allowed. A person should set a limit for the time spent playing and for the time spent in serious pursuits; if (the time devoted to playing) is half or one-third or one-quarter, then this is too much. And Allaah knows best. 
 Shaykh Khaalid al-Maajid (Faculty Member, College of Sharee’ah, Imaam Muhammad ibn Sa’ood Islamic University). (here).

That university is apparently based in Riyadh and spends a considerable amount of time pumping out fundamentalist bigotry online, no doubt with the help of Saudi oil dollars ...

Which brings the pond back to the fundamentalist Margaret Court issuing her jihadist fatwa against Alan Joyce ...

It gives the pond a chance to welcome sport and reptile journalist Margie McDonald to the pond - the pond usually conducts its own fatwa on all forms of sport by ignoring it ... but this attempt to serve up a sanitised Court was too much to bear ...

Uh huh, local hero? So now we're trading off on movies?

It's a process whereby bigotry and barking mad fundamentalist followers of religion are sanitised and cleansed and made holy, and tennis somehow gets separated from 'freedom of speech', which somehow earns itself inverted commas, because freedom of speech isn't the same as 'freedom of speech' ... and as a result, Albury ends up sounding suspiciously like Tamworth ...

Well Court had her say, and then she got slammed for her intolerance, so both sides exercised their freedom of speech ...

These days gay professional tennis players don't have to hide their homosexuality ... and tennis has itself been a long march, in terms of what women were allowed to wear, how much they should be paid, and so on and endlessly on in the struggle for equality.

It took considerable bravery for gay tennis stars to come out - count the number of AFL players who have come out - and don't get the pond started on the challenges that Althea Gibson faced in pursuing her career and winning the French Open, Greg Hunt her here. Not because she was gay ... in her case she was black ...

Let's just say that the freedom to speak, the freedom to be, and sport, are intimately connected ... have always been, and always will be ...

So don't give the pond all the usual hagiographic tripe about how wonderful Court was, as if that's some kind of absolution for what Court has become, and the way the fatwa-issuing fundamentalist Court currently is ...

People can feel honoured to get an award in an event named after a stupid fundamentalist. That's their right and privilege ...but how could anyone read those last few lines and not laugh loudly in a way designed to agitate Islamic fundamentalists?

“We should be able to talk freely. I’ve got nothing against people. I even get letters from atheists and they say they believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I get them from all kinds of people ... they’re not Christians, I don’t think it’s anything to do with that.”

Here's the thing. If you talk freely about how gays are going to hell, likely they're inclined to talk freely, perhaps suggesting that you might go to hell instead ...

And of course it's to do with fundamentalist Christianity you goose, and other fundamentalist religions, including but not limited to fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist Judaism ...

It isn't so hard to understand. A few old fashioned goat and camel herders scribbled down some delusional lines a few thousand years ago, and some barking mad people have been howling at the moon ever since ...

Never mind, being able to talk freely is a two-way street, and having a few unkind words about Margaret Court is an amiable way to spend a Wednesday ...

It's a pleasant distraction from other corrupt fundamentalists out and about conducting a war on the media ... media which has been exploring the deep and disturbing corruption currently on parade ...

Here at the ABC:

"Ian, don't take this lying down. You and Saraya, you're smarter than that. You know her well. Go and have a fucking coffee with her [Senator Hanson] or something, mate. Seriously, go and remind her of a few fucking home truths." "Away from Mr Ashby," Mr Nelson said. "Yeah."

Here at the ABC:

Senator Hanson: "Who knows Bill's name? No-one, we always kept it very quiet. 

She continues: Who knows that he paid the money upfront for the office?" 

Mr Nelson: "I have no idea." 

Senator Hanson: "There was only the four of us who knew. It was tight-knit."

Hmm, the pond has thus far managed to link tennis, fundamentalist Islamics and Xians, spaghetti, and gays and blacks and women's rights, and Pauline Hanson and the ABC.

There must be some way to get in coal ...

Mr Modi signalled that India will move forward on its climate agenda even if the US exits the Paris agreement, saying politicians have "absolutely no right" to put in jeopardy the environment for future generations. He praised Mrs Merkel's experience and Germany's economic example to India. 
 "We are meant for each other," Mr Modi said. (Fairfax, here).

Hmm, that doesn't quite do it. It's good that India will go on pursuing renewable energy sources and attempting to reduce reliance on traditional fuels such as coal, thereby placing the economics of projects like Adani in profound jeopardy.

But that's familiar news.

Did some form of epic stupidity turn up this day that could set up the running of a Rowe cartoon?

Oh wait ...

The Turnbull government will test support for coal in Parliament by introducing changes that would allow the green bank to invest in carbon capture and storage technology if it cuts pollution by at least half.
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the Clean Energy Finance Corporation [CEFC] would have its mandate expanded so it could back fossil fuel power plants that include the technology, sometimes described as "clean coal".

"This is proven technology – technology that should be made to work here in Australia to reduce emissions and help us meet our Paris targets," Mr Frydenberg said. He said there were 17 successful projects across the globe, storing about 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. To put that in perspective, Australian annual emissions alone are about 550 million tonnes...
... The technology depends on local geology, and has proven prohibitively expensive. A $2.4 billion carbon capture and storage flagship program announced by the Rudd government in 2009 yielded little and was gradually wound back before being discontinued under the Coalition. (More nonsense at Fairfax here).

This is proven technology?

Yep, that'll do it, and as always there's more Rowe here ...

In which the all-day sucker pond bites on a parallelised Troy ...

As always at the Terror, it's the fault of the victims of bigotry rather than the bigots themselves, and as ever, the narcissist arm-breaker is on parade and naturally blaming the leftists ...

Is it any wonder that the pond turned to Troy, temporarily at the head of the reptile opinion page?

Who could resist? There are many parallels between Trump and Hitler, Trump and Julius Caesar, Trump and Napoleon, Trump and Leonardo da Vinci, Trump and Einstein, Trump and Frederick Douglass, Trump and Martin Luther King ...

The list of parallels is inexhaustible, but Troy joins a venerable list of parallelers, always assiduous in sniffing out the railway lines racing towards the horizon. How else to fill in tree killer space with maximum irrelevant musing?

What a noble lineage of like minds. The pond felt the need to give Troy the purple tinge of emperors to mark out his contribution.

But heck why stop there ... so many parallels, so little time ...

After all, the Donald solved some of the great American mysteries faster than the Warren Commission ...

Now how long before we reach that immortal billy goat "butt" moment ... you know,  after the endless talk of there being many parallels,  many similarities ... then comes the 'but, billy goat, butt' ...

Astonishing insights. Who'd have thought that the Donald wasn't JFK?

And there you go, it wasn't until the fifth par that the trajectories diverged, but not before the remarkable similarity of television and twitter had been explored.

Speaking of alternative universes, Tom Tomorrow offered up one, with more TT here ...

Indeed, indeed, somewhere in those parallel worlds are simulations of journalists desperately seeking a new angle on the Donald ... how the pond envies those lines of code ...

Has there ever been a better bunch of mindless factoids assembled and compared? 

Well the pond was never one to waste an opportunity, and looks forward to the Donald becoming ever more like JFK, searching for his own 'Nam and his very own special bay ...

Hmm, how on earth did those parallels get into the mix?

And will Troy dare to go there? Will Troy invite the obvious parallel ending?

An assassination? Some skilled sniper ready to take the shot? Mark Wahlberg's already in training?

Nope, Troy shied at the jump ... but luckily there's a Pope today, showing the unnerving resemblance of the Donald to the macaroon (with more Pope here).

And what about TT discovering these unnerving parallels? 

Well, that's not right, really should have done a Troy. There's nothing like conferring status on a dumbo by making a comparison to a president with a reputation enhanced by an assassin's bullet...

But still the parallels keep coming ...

Oh why not just forget the parallels, do the comedy straight...

And that's more than enough parallels for the day ...

In which the pond carps along with the Caterists ...

What's astonishing is how the goalposts should have so shifted that the fool McCain is being greeted by reptiles and politicians alike as the sort of astute Presidential candidate we now mourn and miss ...

Yet it was the fool McCain who selected Sarah Palin as his running mate, thereby introducing a level of stupidity into presidential politics that hadn't been seen even in the days of Spiro Agnew and Dan Quayle ... and what glorious days they were ...

From Palin to the Donald was but a short step, and for that lowering of intelligence in American politics, we all have McCain the fool to thank...

But at least Afghanistan has now been sorted and no doubt McCain, always keen on a fight, will be pleased. Thirty extra trainers should see everything sorted by Xmas ...

And now, since the reptiles of Oz still think their best business plan is to trade on the Donald ...

... how better to start the day than to turn to an another, alternative fool blathering on about fools in the inimitable way only foolish Caterists can manage ...

Actually anyone travelling to the United States, and wishing to avoid being made to give up all their digital secrets, passwords and suchlike - not just Muslims - would be well advised to take precautions, as would anyone travelling to a deeply fascist state ...

But that speed bump overcome, it's time to proceed to the foolish Caterist ...

The pond immediately knew the angle.

Here was migrant riffraff who'd landed in the country, and thanks to the obliging fools at the Department of Finance, had managed to make fools of Australian taxpayers time after time ...

Dammit, he must know what he's talking about ...

Indeed, indeed. This migrant riffraff with a minor degree in sociology from a minor university landed in Australia and has been looting the taxpayer ever since. Talk about infuriating ...

And the pond's only mentioned the last couple of grants this migrant riffraff has made off with, as he's looted the taxpayer purse and laughed all the way to the bank.

Throw in blow-in bandits like the Bolter, creating disharmony and disorder every day they speak, and there really is something wrong with the way we let people into the country ...

Here's the thing. Any check and balance on the mutton Dutton, a proto-fascist plod always willing to lock people up, throw away the key and asks questions later, would be welcome by anyone except the Caterist, but then the Caterist has found a legal way to make out like a bandit, and now uses the proceeds of his bureaucratic-facilitated crimes to shout from his bully pulpit at the less fortunate out there in the wider world ...

Meanwhile, speaking of genuine first Australians, as opposed to migrant riffraff of the Caterist kind, Rowe managed to find some humour in Barners, the man who ruined Tamworth and turned it from the centre of the known universe into a hell hole ... with more Rowe here ...

Carp! More illegal migrants of the riffraff Caterist kind ...