In which the pond channels nattering "Ned", the bouffant one, the news and the onion muncher and arrives at a worm in the skull ...

It was too little too late, and even if the rednecks of the north made a sudden show of coming to their senses, the same couldn't be said of their southern cousins ...

Luckily the pond has a strict policy of not engaging with the panhandling Panahi, because her framing of the debate is doubly offensive.

It's not gay marriage that's the circus, it's the behaviour of fundamentalist homophobic bigots ... and if anyone thinks that's going to be put to bed before Christmas, they've got Murdochian rocks in their head ... or they've been reading the Terror ...

Say what? That's a little bold for the Terror, which is usually more comfortable with this sort of front page ... and can we just have a check on their front page this day to see if they joined their NT cousins?

Sigh. 

But who would be bold enough to make such a prediction anyway?

Sigh. 

ABC it here, but is there any chance that gorgeous George will join other some other great prophets?

Actually the pond hadn't thought it likely before, but the pond now thinks that Malware might stand a good chance of being toast by Christmas ... 

As usual, to guide it through the maze, the pond turned to the lizard Oz, always setting a cutting pace in reporting on important matters affecting the gay community ...

Yes, yesterday a discussion about ladies and gentlemen made it to the top of the Oz digital page thanks to the urbane Urban ... but nattering "Ned" will surely be a better guide ...

The least worst option? Actually the google splash suggests that "Ned" is on the same trajectory as gorgeous George ...

It'll all be sorted by Xmas? The pond suspects it might well be joining the Goons ...

Already the onion muncher is out and about urging people to vote no, and yet it'll all be sorted by Xmas? Well "Ned" does seek to persuade people to his point of view by boring them to death, so perhaps it will work ...

Actually can we stop right there for a moment?

There are a couple of iron realities in this bizarre saga. The first is that the whole unholy mess was the work of little Johnny, and the second is that the reptiles cheered on him and the onion muncher ...

So who do the reptiles turn to this day?

Little Johnny, the man behind the mess, has spoken out?

He's hit out in the same way he hit out before, and concocted the whole stew of bile and bigotry?

 

Oh that sounds like it's going to be a dissembling pile of self-serving nonsense ... take it away Primrose ...

Oh fuck, it had never occurred to the people before 2004 that marriage was other than between a man and a woman?

What never? Or hardly ever?

And Primrose Riordan managed to report that steaming pile of nonsense with a straight face?

And so it's back to nattering "Ned", wringing his hands and moaning in the usual lengthy way ...

Oh fuck. There's nattering "Ned" chiding others for offering pompous advice to the government, and then ending up noting that the result is going to be a voluntary non-binding postal vote which will chew up loose change to the tune of $122 million.

And it's being conducted by the class clowns whom even the reptiles can't resist mocking ...

So we have a gigantic, expensive, non-binding public opinion poll being conducted by a mob of bunglers, down there with having lobster with a mobster, and with the most fanatical and committed able to get out the vote by showing more homophobic passion?

Well, while many of the reptiles and Malware presume it's a safe bet, the pond has other precedents in mind ...

And as assuredly as Trump would never be president, there will be other consequences, as noted by Rowe, with more Rowe here ...

Hmm, and they never did get around to banning greyhound racing.

And so back to nattering "Ned" for a last lengthy gobbet of nonsense ...

It seems even in nattering "Ned" there comes a slow dawning, a slow understanding ...

It came to the bouffant one yesterday as well ...

Malware had, of course, been out and about puffing about how his quisling, forelock-tugging, fellow travelling with the mutton Dutton was a form of strong leadership ...

"Strong leaders carry out their promises, weak leaders break them," Mr Turnbull said. "I'm a strong leader. I made that promise again and again… you heard me say again and again that every Australian will have a say on this issue." (as per ABC link above).

It was like watching a pitiful cream puff boast about the size of its biceps ...

When even the bouffant one points out that the emperor's clothes are invisible, it seems obvious enough that fibre to the node isn't going to be the solution ... but rather will store up a whole slow moving stream of bites and bytes down the road ...

And so will come the big ask of the Malware government. 

Who will support gay marriage in the ballot, and who will oppose it?

Will there be cabinet solidarity or will it be a wildcat free for all conscience vote, with conservative cabinet members and backbenchers joining the onion muncher in opposing the notion?

Will the government split, and will it play nice, or will it turn nasty?

None of the answers turned up in the reptiles' official "news" coverage ...

Uh huh, so now gay marriage is being compared to the quest for a national song, and instead of Waltzing Matilda, we ended up with that godawful dirge Advance Australia Fair.

How gay is that?

The more the pond read on, the more it sensed that there was another NBN copper fiasco waiting in the wings ...

Well yes, it's weak, pathetic, impotent, craven, cowardly behaviour, dressed up and parading in the guise of strong leadership ... and according to the reptiles, the onion muncher put everyone on notice in the party room ...

So it's going to be a glorious process, yet at its heart there's a dodgy process involving the census bunglers as a way of dodging the legal problems?

How is this shaping up as a win, as opposed to another copper-clad nodal fiasco?

At the end of it all, the weary pond turned to the Pope for a final word, with more papal encyclicals here ...

Cunning of the Pope to avoid paying for the stamp, but that worm emerging from the eye of the skull of the homophobic bigot just about said it all and made everything before irrelevant ... and so it begins, with the worm out and about...

An abomination? The only abomination here the pond can see is Malware and the Murdochians and that worm fucking the rose of love ...