The onion muncher lives!

After the pond's rather harsh words yesterday, the pond is pleased to see that the Caterist is out and about this day and blessed with a Lobbecke, but has decided to let him linger in the hallway like the recalcitrant, lazy ning nong he is …

… because the onion muncher lives, and in the pond and the reptile world, the onion muncher takes precedent over everything and everybody. Vive le oignon muncherrrr…

You see, the pond has noticed a breathless hush in the close, and a constant mention of the onion muncher on the reptile twitter feed.

Much has revolved around the onion muncher's threat of defiance …

Of course not all the reactions have been entirely positive …but the reptiles know the base quality of their base …and they keep on tweeting on ...

 

Even the dog botherer joined in, though here it was the crisis in Western Civilisation …

And so to today's effort, which placed one epic failure below another epic failure …

After all this, it's easy to see that, while the pond might have been repelled, it was also impelled and compelled …though one thought did occur to the pond arising from the headline.

If the ANU is prone to rewriting history, how could it be conceived as a fit and proper home for the Ramsay Centre?

After all, one of the key tenets of Western Civilisation is surely that history should never be rewritten, unlike those dreadful bloody postmodernists with their tendency to revisionism ….

How could regular "health checks" prevent this canker at the revisionist, rewriting core, so unlike the onion muncher's straightforward, honest desire to celebrate Cecil Rhodes …?

After all, if Cecil Rhodes, that other philanthropic bachelor, could help to create generations of “men for the world’s fight”, why shouldn’t he? Rhodes became the philanthropist who most fascinated him because he’d invested his fortune in the leaders of the future. Rhodes’ scholars certainly needed to have “literary and scholastic attainments”, as his will stated, but it wasn’t just about getting ahead; it was about being of service. Rhodes wanted to nurture people with “moral force of character and instincts to lead” with “truth, courage, devotion to duty” and “energy to use one’s talents to the fullest”. (Warning, link leads to onion muncher site).

Ah manly men, fighting and fighting, what a splendid vision. As for Rhodes, the philanthropic bachelor? Put like that, he sounds quite harmless … or indeed something of a visionary,

"...with Rhodes arguing that "the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism, such as works in India, in our relations with the barbarism of South Africa". Rhodes advocated the governance of indigenous Africans living in the Cape Colony "in a state of barbarism and communal tenure" as "a subject race. I do not go so far as the member for Victoria West, who would not give the black man a vote. ... If the whites maintain their position as the supreme race, the day may come when we shall be thankful that we have the natives with us in their proper position." (Greg Hunters go here).

There's more political chicanery and repression of black voters at the link, but the political chicanery was also something to see, as Rhodes looted the country to amass a personal fortune …

Rhodes had already tried and failed to get a mining concession from Lobengula, king of the Ndebele of Matabeleland. In 1888 he tried again. He sent John Moffat, son of the missionary Robert Moffat, who was trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign a treaty of friendship with Britain, and to look favourably on Rhodes's proposals. His associate Charles Rudd, together with Francis Thompson and Rochfort Maguire, assured Lobengula that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland. This limitation was left out of the document, known as the Rudd Concession, which Lobengula signed. Furthermore, it stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary to their operations. When Lobengula discovered later the true effects of the concession, he tried to renounce it, but the British Government ignored him.
During the Company's early days, Rhodes and his associates set themselves up to make millions (hundreds of millions in current pounds) over the coming years through what has been described as a "suppressio veri ... which must be regarded as one of Rhodes's least creditable actions".
Contrary to what the British government and the public had been allowed to think, the Rudd Concession was not vested in the British South Africa Company, but in a short-lived ancillary concern of Rhodes, Rudd and a few others called the Central Search Association, which was quietly formed in London in 1889. This entity renamed itself the United Concessions Company in 1890, and soon after sold the Rudd Concession to the Chartered Company for 1,000,000 shares. When Colonial Office functionaries discovered this chicanery in 1891, they advised Secretary of State for the Colonies Knutsford to consider revoking the concession, but no action was taken.

Oh yes, he was a tidy piece of work, and entirely befitting of the onion muncher's hero worship. Kick the blacks of their land, repress any prospect of a black vote, and loot the country. What's not to admire? Western Civilisation at its finest ...

Sorry, the pond almost clean forgot the onion muncher was getting agitated about the rewriting of history …

Say what? The onion muncher was reduced to scribbling a letter?

The reptiles didn't give him the space for yet another column outlining the Crisis in Western Civilisation?

Doesn't that fact alone provide clear evidence there is a Crisis in Western Civilisation?

Naturally it being the lizard Oz, and home to loons, there was much additional squawking from assorted readers …

Ah yes, what better sign of civilisation than a storming of the barricades.

Bring on "health checks" the pond says, before the smell from the rotting corpse of Western Civilisation  ruins the day for readers of the lizard Oz …

After all this, is it any wonder that the pond had to relegate the Caterist to the hallway, and kick his idle heels like the derelict scrounger he is …

And now for a little housekeeping, the pond must append the final gobbet ...

At the end of it, the pond was no clearer about what had happened with "health checks".

Had they been proposed? That's the rub, and apparently the good Prof mentioned the notion again on AM, according to the Graudian …

Schmidt revealed on Tuesday that Ramsay representatives wanted to set up a management committee with equal numbers from the Ramsay Centre and the ANU, and to conduct “health checks” by sitting in on classes to assess the lecturers and material taught. He told ABC’s AM program that the proposal would go “against the autonomy of the university” because it would amount to “an external group that sets what the university does”. (here).

Strangely, for an onion muncher averse to rewriting history, the onion muncher in his letter doesn't mention or discuss the concept …

Was it ever mooted in discussions? Were there plans for "health checks" to be put into effect? Who knows, but the good Prof did end up with one of those famous reptile Dame Slap teachable moments ...

Asked what he had learned, Schmidt said: “In the modern era it is quite difficult to get the truth out there.” “It’s amazing how by saying – and misstating – something, for example the ANU is not supportive of western civilisation studies again and again, and again you can actually transform the narrative into something that is not true.”

Dear sweet lord, where has Schmidt been living? Has he only just now discovered the transformative power of the reptiles? Has he only now discovered the alternative jungle reality in which the 'storming the barricades' onion muncher lives?

And speaking of that, the Pope this day doesn't seem sure if he's watching a re-run of Predator or George Pal's ancient warhorse version of The Time Machine … but never mind, there's more papal movies to be seen here …yes, yes, of course there are sites dedicated to blimps in movies, and possibly Malware blimps in politics ...