In which the pond has a Friday feast, but relax, Moorice is the main course ...

As the reptiles drift further and further to the right - some might have thought this an impossible feat, but never discount the singular ability of the reptiles locked in Murdochian la la land - the pond thought the time was right for a Friday banquet.

There was Moorice, whom the pond simply can't ignore, one of the world's greatest scientists, standing by to do a fiery Donald on the UN, so there was the main course done and dusted.

Others might read the Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert scribbling in The New Yorker on How to write about a vanishing world …

“A lot of what we’re doing in terms of conservation actions is futile until we stabilize the climate,” Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the director of the Global Change Institute, at Australia’s University of Queensland, tells Braverman. Hoegh-Guldberg describes local efforts to preserve or restore reefs as “rearranging the chairs on the Titanic to get a better view.” Imitating those on the other side, he says, “Let’s just block out those horrible people, like me, who say it’s all futile. ‘Lalalalalala, can’t hear you!’ ” 
In the second camp are those who argue that, yes, reefs are dying and, yes, the situation is only going to get worse, but this just makes local restoration efforts that much more urgent. Ruth Gates, the director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, is working on selectively breeding corals that might be able to withstand higher temperatures, an approach that’s become known as “assisted evolution.” 
“The gloom and doom is paralyzing,” she tells Braverman at one point. “The scope of climate change is paralysing.”

Oh come on, between despair and delusion, the pond will always go the delusional … and who better than the delusional Moorice?

But first the entrée, little snatches, little gobbets of salivating delight as an opening treat … you see, the reptiles have been busy helping demonise that dreadful man Khashoggi …

How much? Well they stuck it at the top of the digital revolving page …

So even though it's only an entrée, a little attention had to be paid ...

Note that precautionary "this is not to suggest that the killing of Khashoggi is justified"… as the authors then go on to explain how Khashoggi would try the patience of a saint or even an ever so democratic and reformist crown prince … so full of outrageous opinions, it's completely understandable why he was topped, some assassinations being merely part of a thoughtful reform programme, a path towards democracy byway of mayhem and consular murder …

How outrageous was Khashoggi? Check out this one…

Shocking. Fancy calling the war in Yemen an abject failure. It prompted a comment down below …

Indeed, indeed, shocking, and Khashoggi just kept on being offensive in the most offensive ways …

It takes some considerable cheek to talk of "Khashoggi's disappearance" as if using "disappearance" will erase memories of a brutal murder which even the Saudis now concede was premeditated.

So just who are these authors expert in the art of disappearing ugly words like "murder"?

Yep, one's from a ratbag think tank, Greg Hunt it here, and what do you know, another's from a similar sort of ratbag think tank, hunters go here …

Wait, wait, you say, perhaps there's another reason for talking about a 'disappearance.

Could it mean that the reptiles recycled a piece that ran in the New York Post back on October 18th, under the header Why the Saudis despised Jamal, (here no paywall), and then had the cheek to dress it up and put it at the top of the page?

Oh dear, weevils in the entrée, and much water under the bridge since then, and the pond will send out the waiter to apologise profusely ...

But enough of the mouldy entrée, it's time for a full dose of Moorice as the main course … warning, an afternoon nap might be required to sleep off the indulgence, just like when you ate too much Xmas pud  and swallowed the threepence…

Good old climate change, whatever that might be. The pond of course deeply regrets linking to that dreadful Kolbert woman ...

…we seem to have reached the point where even the calls to arms are starting to sound like dirges. In the same chapter in which Wadhams argues for better energy policies, he observes that such policies probably can’t—and almost certainly won’t—be put in place fast enough to save the Arctic. Therefore, he says, technologies to block sunlight or change the reflectivity of clouds will have to be deployed. These so-called geoengineering technologies have yet to be tested—if truth be told, they’ve really yet to be invented—but without them, according to Wadhams, the “temperature rise, and the associated further feedbacks, will be too great to allow our civilization to continue.” Apparently, this is supposed to count as inspirational. 
It’s hard to say what purpose would be served by a message of straight-up despair; despondency, as it’s often noted, produces its own feedback loop. And yet, scientifically speaking, what alternative is there, as we move into the future, beyond the baiji, and the golden toad, and the reefs, and the sea ice, on toward reëngineering the atmosphere? Lalalalalala, can’t hear you!

The pond apologises for interfering in Moorice's flow. When he gets a full rant going, all the pond should do is stand back and let Moorice flow, and let those who can't take it, put their hands to their ears and shout Lalalalalala, can’t hear you!

Uh huh, is there a pipe bomb in the house? Seeing as how the Donald is conducting one of the more robust and most unique (thanks News 24) democracies doing the rounds at the moment …

But back to Moorice, cheering on the destruction of Europe, because let's face it, a Europe run by populists and Vlad the impaler would be so much better. Remember, instead of faceless bureaucrats, how much better things would be with a grinning, bare-chested Putin ...

Yep, only Moorice could interpret calls for the government to do something about climate science as a cry to do nothing …

But what about desserts you ask? Surely there's room for an after dinner mint or three? Well yes, and here's a Rowe cartoon especially for Moorice, with more instructive Rowe cartoons to be found here …

Now the pond isn't going into the old argument of calling the serving of sweets deserts, when good-old fashioned 'sweets' would do … the pond is proudly Francophile and pleased at the way the perfidious French corrupted and replaced middle English … even if talk of tea for dinner and sweets for dessert was all the go in Tamworth ...

"a service of fruits and sweets at the close of a meal," c. 1600, from Middle French dessert (mid-16c.) "last course," literally "removal of what has been served," from desservir "clear the table," literally "un-serve," from des- "remove, undo" (see dis-) + Old French servir "to serve" (see serve (v.)). Dessert-wine is from 1733; dessert-spoon from 1776. (here)

Now some might think a hit of bloody human wine and fleshy human bread hardly constitutes a sweet, but if you're going to be pedantic, think of it as a nice sauterne and some pain au chocolat avec du sang ...

In short, the lies start with the header, since seeking the right to believe that other humans are wicked and deserving a place in hell, and it's your duty in your workplace to make that point on a daily basis, naturally means that the religious seek the right to discriminate …

But then Mike Pence calls himself an Xian, while keeping the company of the daily liar, so the pond shouldn't really be surprised …

Uh huh, so there you go … "until now it has been widely accepted that religious organisations need to be exempted from the operation of anti-discrimination laws."

So they do seek the right to discriminate according to whatever fundamentalist Islamic or Xian or Jewish belief that motivates them …

Why not just say it, why trot out disingenuous specious tommyrot of the "seek to believe not to discriminate"kind …

The pond is beginning to regret embarking on dessert. There's that feeling of being too bloated by nonsense … and yet there's a whole bowl of it to swallow ...

Uh huh. Well, believe what you like, just don't expect taxpayers to fund your right to discriminate … and while we're at it, how about recognising reality and taxing religions in the way of other corporate entities? 

Why not start with scientology? At least if you're running a cult, you should be made to reveal your books and pay your taxes … 

If prostitutes and brothels are made to do it, how come bigots score an exemption?

And what goes for the L. Ron mob surely applies just as well to Sunday cannibals …

And so to a relieving Pope. The pond never thought it would get there, but at last there's safe harbour and time for a nap, but not until the last dinner mint. How sweet it tastes, this coal-laden mint …with more savoury papal advice here … (by golly, that's a good likeness of comrade poodle, though in the manner of Orwellian pigs, some might confuse him with the onion muncher).