Step back, the pond has got a butter knife, and it isn't afraid to use it …
Now where did that come from?
And so justice comes to all those who abandon Tamworth to live in Armidale, "now his home town"!!. The gods are never kind to such treachery, She is stern.
Oh dear, what rough beast is that slouching towards the back bench, causing much alarm amongst the trolls ...
Dammit, the pond has been derailed this Friday, though a diet of Oreos and onions is not to be recommended to anyone … where will it end?
Now where did that come from?
And so justice comes to all those who abandon Tamworth to live in Armidale, "now his home town"!!. The gods are never kind to such treachery, She is stern.
Oh dear, what rough beast is that slouching towards the back bench, causing much alarm amongst the trolls ...
There's always a pedant who comes along wanting to ruin the fun …
Weatherboard Nine it shall be now and forever … though a numeral is allowed in Thunderbird 9 episodes ...
Call it pigging out, call it as reckless as a burger diet, but the pond couldn't resist heading over to the Speccie mob at end of day …
The Speccie mob love their Barners, in the way that your Macquarie or Collins street toffs love their farms … and they were full of outrage at the treatment meted out to their idol, with the Brown-out outraged, and the editor apoplectic …
But then down in the corner, what was that?
Aux bien pensants?
It was Flinty week at the Speccie!
How could the pond ignore Flinty, once again laying out his infinite wisdom for the good of the common people …though the pond did wonder if Flinty might be better off with something less arcane as his heading.
Something with more of a common touch, something the plebs would understand at once … say "Bonum est populous" or "stous kaloús anthrópous" or what about a bit of Armenian?
լավ մարդկանց
Flinty, just like the pond, is always alert to the humbugging ways of pretentious 'leets, and he's a dab hand at being in touch with common folk …
It explains exactly why he's at one with the onion muncher and so understanding of Barners …
How could the pond ignore Flinty, once again laying out his infinite wisdom for the good of the common people …though the pond did wonder if Flinty might be better off with something less arcane as his heading.
Something with more of a common touch, something the plebs would understand at once … say "Bonum est populous" or "stous kaloús anthrópous" or what about a bit of Armenian?
լավ մարդկանց
Flinty, just like the pond, is always alert to the humbugging ways of pretentious 'leets, and he's a dab hand at being in touch with common folk …
It explains exactly why he's at one with the onion muncher and so understanding of Barners …
Bring back the onion muncher!
Indeed, indeed, waiter, a round of onion-flavoured Ramen Oreos for everyone …
And now with tradition and ritual observed, so to Flinty reminding us that he's no 'leetist, and he knows about the 'leets, and he knows about draining the swamp, and poor old Barners ...
Oh who, rhetorical question, oh who indeed …
How Tandberg is missed.
And now speaking of the Queen, please allow the pond to skip past Flinty's usual snipe at those wretched socialists … and his cry for the return of grand juries ...
… to focus on the outrageous intrusion of Gramsci into everything ...
Uh huh. Actually, it turns out that it's got sweet bugger all to do with Gramsci, and a lot to do with the bees that buzz around in dear old Flinty's bonnet all day long …
Here he was, way back in 2008, though sadly the link to the Woolcott story is now long dead …
What a marvellous old parrot he is, still regurgitating the same stories year after year, in much the same way as the pond loves its old cartoons …
Of course there are some sacrifices involved in meandering back with Flinty to the days of the dodo, including a refusal to acknowledge or note other issues at play in the land of Trump … but a few cartoons will help balance the books … even if the pond will be long gone before anything changes ...
*whew* - that was close! To my horror, I briefly found myself nodding in agreement with Flinty's comments on Ministerial advisors (Admission - I'm a one-time mainstream public servant), and even if you take the "a stopped clock is still right twice a day" view, that's a terrifying feeling. Fortunately, Davo quickly moved onto his standard territory, appearing to believe that this was both a recent phenomenon and confined to Australia, and thus the fault of leets, and then making a mighty leap of logic (far beyond the understanding of my feeble intellect) to concerns about the protocol of a decades-ago state visit to Indonesia (or, in Flinty-speak, the Dutch East Indies). I'm not quite sure what that was all about - something to do with who should have worn the largest lace ruff? - but I'm sure that Flinty was correct in his interpretation, and the funny little foreign people were wrong. If only they'd had the good sense to remain under a Monarchy.
ReplyDeleteCan't find any way to contact the pond but just would like to let you know that Sharri Markson claims credit for this and Media Watch agrees https://twitter.com/TrueCrimeWeekly
ReplyDelete"It was Flinty week at the Speccie!"
ReplyDeleteYay !! And don't his clear recollections and sharp observations put all those other slithering reptiles to shame.
As Flinty's imagined golden era recedes further into the past, he seems to go back even further again. He's like Merlin, aging backwards. What he wants here are Commissions of Oyer and Terminer, an 800 year old English institution with the small fault that they were made redundant by legal changes early in Queen Victoria's reign. I'd have thought Flinty would approve of an ICAC - the reptiles keep comparing it to a Star Chamber, an even older English institution.
ReplyDeleteLet's just gloss over the fact that the problem he correctly identifies started on the watch of his idol, John Winston Howard, who hated the "proper" public service because they insisted on repeatedly telling him that it wasn't the 1950's any more.
Hmm, well I guess the balmy days of Nugget Coombs and Roland Wilson are long gone. More recently we've had the likes of John Stone.
DeleteBut then I always understood that the 'real' public service had become politicised - by osmosis apparently - during the long "Liberal" reign from 1949 to 1972*, and that Gough had had to 'cleanse' the institution somewhat. Which, in the usual 'pretend everything is the opposite of what it really is' style of the Right Wingnuts was counted as Whitlam, in fact, 'politicisung' the Federal Pubserve.
So where exactly did John Winston get into the act ?
* Otherwise known as the long Wingnut march through the institutions.
The parallel system didn't start under Howard, but it did explode under him. The number of people employed directly by politicians and parties was trivial until the 90's and the concerted campaign run by Peter Reith to dismantle the federal public service as a functioning entity.
DeleteI imagine that Malcolm Fraser was quite happy with the advice he got from the likes of John Stone and subsequently BoBork and Keating were very happy with the econorat advice from the "Productivity" Commission.
DeleteBut I suppose Reith just had to look elsewhere for advice on how to destroy the Maritime Workers Union - don't reckon the Fed Pubserve would have been quite up to that.
And not quite sure I'd want to have a Pubserve that was the primary source of advice on ideological preferences and political policies. Separation of responsibilities - the Pubserve is responsible for advice on 'How' but not on 'What' - might indicate a 'parallel system' as necessary.