In which the pond enjoys a serve of fear thanks to the Devine, and then a bout of loathing, thanks to nattering "Ned" ...

For its lunch treat, the pond thought it should return to the Devine form of fear, which naturally begins with evocative images of fairies ...

Fear the fairy! Especially fear the gender fairy!!

"Revealed exclusively here" is code for "only the Devine is capable of such fear-mongering and able recycling of polling done for a deliberately partisan purpose, without in any way asking tricky questions about the whys and wherefores and hows of the polling, the methodology and the questions asked" ...

Yes, it's another chance to splash on a goodly dose of the best fragrance of all ...

Note the sublime equivocations and fudges involved in the presentation of the data ...

Now around this point, with talk of sex toys and group sex, the conflation, obfuscation and confusion is almost complete ...

Shocking stuff. Fancy being inclusive. 

And so to the other fear-mongering effort this day, this time by lizard Joe Kelly doing his best for fear in the Oz ...

Now it might be expected that the reptiles, still fancying they're broadsheet, would avoid the tabloidism of the Devine, but no, the source for the start of the yarn is the same polling being circulated by the 'no' mob, ever eager to whip up the fear ...

Now there's an infinite richness there in the middle of that stew - the onion muncher deploring the ALP failing to give its MPs freedom on SSM.

Waiter, there's a pot over there, and he's calling the kettle black ...

But all this is just an entrée to the main course for the day, a serving of solemn stodge, otherwise known as nattering "Ned" porridge for the mind ... (oh okay that defames porridge, a wonderful winter meal).

There's a truly exceptional and rich serve of irony involved here ....

You see, on the one hand, the blatherers about religious freedom and assorted other freedoms - and nattering "Ned" has on most days been at the heart of the indignation and outrage - have been getting wildly agitated about government intervention and government-led ruination in private lives thanks to SSM ...

On the other hand, these blatherers are exceptionally keen to see government intrude and rule over every aspect of life for anyone who comes into contact with the government by way of welfare ...

What's most interesting in this is the way that victims are singled out and punished and blamed for being victims, of gambling, grog and all the other temptations ...

What about the pedlars of grog, or the gambling giants who litter football grand final broadcasts with all sorts of inducements to gamble?

Well that's where it gets tricky. You see, they have powerful voices and a well-funded capacity for lobbying behind closed doors ...

How much easier it is, with the aid of the Murdochians, to demonise weak and ineffectual individuals, who can be portrayed as indolent dole bludgers and welfare frauds, lolling around in lazy Bundaberg, with the entire town apparently shortly to end up on welfare ...

There's something so richly ironic about these contrasts that the pond hardly knows where to begin.

And for a moment it seems as if nattering "Ned" also has his doubts, but then it comes to him like a vision, or a dream ...

Please, let us follow this rabbit down his particular dreaming hole ...

You see how easily it's done. Confuse and conflate immunisation with alcohol and gambling and drugs, but make no mention of the regulation of suppliers of alcohol and gambling, or even hint that perhaps there might be an alternative to a war on drugs, and instead focus on the way that individuals are just a pack of welfare bludgers needing a healthy corrective government intervention ... the very same government intervention that threatens religious freedom and individual liberty.

Does nattering "Ned" spend any time or thought or show any anxiety at the contradictions?

Nope, because he has a dream and it's this ...

Now only a fatuous twat, or in modern speak, a twit, could imagine that all and any jobs fundamentally provide dignity and structure in one's life.

That's spoken by a fuckwit who's never done a job which is intrinsically either tedious or mind-numbingly boring, or physically and/or mentally destructive. The pond has done more than a few of them in its time, and has seen enough broken backs or broken minds not to deliver fatuous sermons about the ennobling nature of work.

Just think of the way that being a politician leads to the disabling mental condition known as Tudge-ism.

Just because a prostitute isn't in the welfare system doesn't mean that the job necessarily provides dignity and structure in the hooker's life. Some might think it does, but the pond has seen up close the toll the work takes on some of its workers.

This is the way it goes with puritans and ideologues and zealots, so keen to root out any bludgers. It's fundamentally religious, the punishment of the crickets by the ants - how dare they live on my dime? - and it leads to what nattering "Ned" thinks is a revolutionary insight... 

The welfare card can be used as the basis for yet another bout of dole and welfare bludging bashing, as if this was somehow a novelty and a new angle.

And the resultant bludger-bashing - you might call it a "values-based agenda" if you're up yourself as much as nattering "Ned" - will sweep the most excellent Malware government back for another term. And never mind that said government is almost as singularly useless as that of its onion-munching predecessor ...

Sure the pond writes this between drop-outs in the broadband service, but it's the multiple ironies on parade rather than residual bitterness about the ruination of broadband that generates the hollow Sierra Madre laugh ...

Apparently "Ned" thinks this is a new discovery and we haven't been there before with this government, or with the Murdochians at large ...

... but there, as naked as a new-born bub, is the strategy as celebrated by nattering "Ned". 

Punish welfare recipients, demonise them and demean them, sic the bureaucrats on them to harass and harangue them, shame them and blame them, and electoral victory is there for the taking ...

Attend to the situation of individuals or the societal forces at work?

Nope, a copper clad, multinodal fix will do the trick ... because no-one really gives a toss about anyone unfortunate enough to end up in the clutches of the government.

And so to an illustrative Rowe cartoon, with a tip ... if you head off to Rowe here and follow the link, you should be able to get access to the story featuring the Rowe ....though this offer only applies for the moment, and may change at any time ... and is certainly not designed to encourage welfare bludgers ...