It's time … get ready to rumble with a Punishing Monday ...

Forget the latest Newspoll - the helpful reptiles try to put as good a gloss on it as they can - and forget Malware abroad as a 'banksturm' erupts at home - his timing has always been impeccable - the pond is as pleased as punch that a prediction it made has come to pass, thanks to reptile  Rory Callinan ...

The reptiles love to take a walk on the wild side, and so does the pond, and the sooner that the defence forces end up looking like a gang of feral bikies, the better it will be for everyone …

   

By golly that's a handsome array, and the keen-eyed Rory spotted an open letter on Facebook - who said that failing institution was useless? - and it was on ...

Forget the Phantom and all his milk-drinking goody-two shoes vigilante nonsense, and his good sign and his politically correct moralising, who wouldn't want the Punisher as an inspiration?

How else to bring truth and justice to the world:

The character is an Italian-American vigilante who employs murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence, and torture in his campaign against crime. (here)

Let's face it, you need a Mafia figure to knock over the Mafia, and besides the Punisher graciously appeared in a movie down under way back when …ah Dolph, if only you were in the Australian army … oh wait ...

It's not as if The Punisher isn't patriotic, and recognises that there are worse threats than the Mafia …

Shake pleads with the Punisher to save the children, who are likely to be sold into the Arab slave trade regardless of whether the Mafia give into the demands. The Punisher attacks Yakuza businesses, warning that for every day the children are held in captivity, he will inflict heavy costs on them in property damage. The Yakuza later capture the Punisher and Shake and attempt to torture them into submission, but the Punisher breaks free and decides the only course of action is a direct rescue. 

 He is able to save most of the children with a .45 Thompson M1928 submachine gun against the Yakuza guards and commandeers a bus to get the kidnapped children to safety. However prior to this Tommy Franco, the son of Gianni Franco, had been taken away to Yakuza headquarters. When driving the busload of kids, the Punisher runs into a police roadblock and is arrested. While in custody Castle is reunited with one of his old partners, who warns his multiple killings will likely get him executed, however at a later point Castle is broken out of jail by Franco's men. Franco admits he brought this on himself as the hit on Castle's family was an error, and persuades the Punisher to help him save his son. Castle ironically agrees to work with his old enemy for the sake of stopping the Japanese criminal underworld from taking root in America.

Those bloody Japs, they need a bit of what for, even if it does date the story a little, and introduce certain elements which these days would draw talk of ethnic stereotyping, and thereby outrage the reptiles and require endless stories about the uselessness of political correctness …

Now please don a T of your choice ...

And properly dressed, join the pond to feast on the final gobbet ...

Ha, a classic gotcha moment, and let's face it, overlooking the possible homoerotic undertones, those bloody Spartans were pretty dinkum …

Go, oiled-up diggers and David Wenham - didn't he pump himself up and turn out nicely cut? 

Never mind, the pond just has time for another Punisher on the political scene … good old Barners.

After Kelly's disastrous appearance on The Insiders - it was too Three Stooges to warrant the pond's cultural notes - Barners gave her a good punishing ...

“I know where Kelly is, I understand she’s got the talking points… well screw ‘em up, throw ‘em away, and say ‘actually, I am going to speak straight down the barrel about what is the truth. This is wrong, we are going to deal with it, I take responsibility for it, I am acting on it, next question,’” Mr Joyce said. (Fairfax here).

Just as the plain-speaking Barners did when he admitted assorted stuff-ups in a stellar career … move to Armidale anyone?

But it was Barners' urgent plea for the return of nepotism that attracted the reptiles, and pleased the pond …if you can't bring your son into the family business, what's the point?

With the Donald showing the way, who could possibly argue?

It was a brief report, but it was a potent reminder of how much the nation had lost when it lost the Punisher to the back bench...

Strange that the reptiles left out the bit about the Punisher punishing Kelly, but not to worry, at least there's some Barners v onion muncher action, and David Rowe also helps out, with more helpful Rowe here …