The pond could only imagine the scene in the editorial room, akin to a scene in Billy Wilder's The Front Page ….
Whadda we do, whadda we do? Quick, revive his status as an internationally renowned statesman.
Whadda we do, whadda we do? Quick, revive his status as an internationally renowned statesman.
But hasn't he been blundering around in Brexit, telling the Poms what do do as they head to the lemming cliff?
Yeah, but get him on his concerns about Beijing, have him fantasise about a meeting with Xi and telling the dictator to go jump. They'll lap it up in Warringah …I mean this is a serious man in serious budgie smugglers, with serious concerns ...
Yeah, but get him on his concerns about Beijing, have him fantasise about a meeting with Xi and telling the dictator to go jump. They'll lap it up in Warringah …I mean this is a serious man in serious budgie smugglers, with serious concerns ...
And with the pond's duty done, helping the reptiles and the onion muncher through another parlous day, it's time to do Polonius, who has returned to the scene with an idle boast …
A well-earned break? Who told him it was well-earned? Say what, he told himself?
Actually because of his obsession with the ABC, Polonius keeps ABC hours …another reminder that deep in his heart he's just an old cardigan-wearer never allowed into his media Valhalla …
There was one curious bit in that reptile splash. See how the reptiles struggle with letting go of the old enemy Fairfax … how they hate to scribble lines such as the Nine papers' Credlin confusion …and so now it must be SMH's Credlin confusion ...
Actually because of his obsession with the ABC, Polonius keeps ABC hours …another reminder that deep in his heart he's just an old cardigan-wearer never allowed into his media Valhalla …
There was one curious bit in that reptile splash. See how the reptiles struggle with letting go of the old enemy Fairfax … how they hate to scribble lines such as the Nine papers' Credlin confusion …and so now it must be SMH's Credlin confusion ...
Never mind, Polonius in his alter ego role as columnist was also deeply concerned for the onion muncher …
Put it another way. Using the truly unique ABC as an excuse, Polonius's bias was showing ...
Say what? Polonius doesn't know the meaning of "sensible centre." It seemed clear enough once upon a time …
Ah but that was then, and a heretic was in the chair, and he must now be disavowed, and a barking mad member of the far right must be elevated again, turned statesman, and made yet again victorious member for Warringah … and Polonius mocking his rival, and the ABC, is just the thing for the man who could tell Xi a thing or two ...
Say what? Who on earth would expect Bob Katter to be on anything other than a comedy panel?
Okay, by the pond's count, that's the zillionth time Polonius has scribbled "The ABC is a conservative-free zone with one conservative …" yadda yadda.
It's only February. Will he hit a Scrooge McDuck tillion trillion of mindless repeats this year? Will he ever forgive them for not giving him the Media Watch gig? Can he never stop blathering endlessly about the wickedness of the ABC?
Such a tedious old bore, the pond can only imagine the people who sit down with him in the quiet of the club in their leather chairs and over a very dry gin, moan about how the world is difficult for people like them …
And so to a meditative Sunday treat …
He's following in his father's footsteps? Why then surely he loves the company of crooks …
Yes, the grifter snake oil salesman evangelical is a curious beast, and will keep company with anyone provided it gives them the attention they need to keep the funds rolling in …
Usually the pond would revert to Elmer Gantry but why not a cartoon instead before the long haul begins …
And so to the bromancer doing the Grahams...
Yes, even Bob Ellis went along in 1959 … so much for redeeming sinners. And now Franklin is showing he's learned a thing or two from his dad …
They say that power corrupts absolutely, but there's nothing like keeping company with a pussy grabber to keep the donations flowing. How Elmer Gantry and the bromancer and his dad would admire this sort of skill ...
Beside the point?
The word of God isn't what it once used to be and She's probably not that happy, but the grifters and the snake oil salesmen need their apologists for keeping the company of a pussy grabber, and by golly the bromancer is just the man for the job ...
He became a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr.? That's a lie, a downright, flat-out, shameless lie, but then standards have slipped a little of late when it comes to lies in both the religious and political arenas …
CNN did a long review of Where Billy Graham missed the mark and his deeply ambivalent relationship with King and his movement is heavily featured, including, inter alia, such observations as this …
"Graham was constantly making statements opposing King and his dream," says Long, an associate professor of religion at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. "Graham's legacy is definitely tarnished by the way he approached racial justice."
And so on and on, and the pond didn't even have to revert to its own blogging kind for a list of dad Billy's unfortunate interventions in the secular world …
In every way, Graham was the spiritual father of today’s right-wing religious leaders who so inhabit the national conversation. If he cloaked his suasion in public neutrality it was the hallmark of an era in which such intrusion was deemed unseemly. If today’s practitioners are less abashed, it is in many ways reflective of the secure foundation Graham built within Republican and conservative circles.
Graham endorsed and courted Eisenhower and compared a militaristic State of the Union speech to the Sermon on the Mount, fanned anti-Catholic flames in the Nixon-Kennedy contest, backed Johnson and then Nixon in Vietnam, lobbied for arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the Reagan years, conveyed foreign threats and entreaties for Clinton and lent his imprimateur to G.W. Bush as he declared war on terrorism from the pulpit of the National Cathedral.
Billy Graham approved of warriors and war, weapons of mass destruction (in white, Christian hands) and covert operations. He publicly declaimed the righteousness of battle with enemies of American capitalism, abetted genocide in oil-rich Ecuador and surrounds and endorsed castration as punishment for rapists. A terrible swift sword for certain, and effective no doubt, but not much there in the way of turning the other cheek.
Graham will be cordially remembered by those who found solace in his golden promises and happy homilies, but the worldly blowback from his ministry is playing out in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chechnya and Korea, the Phillipines and Colombia-- everywhere governments threaten human rights and pie in the sky is offered in lieu of daily bread. (here)
Back to the bromancer …and see if you can spot Bob Ellis in the crowd ...
Such modesty, but he learned a thing or two from his dad …
Sheesh, the pond had a whole bunch of cartoons lined up, but is running out of space, time and bromancer blather ...
But we already know what he makes of Trump …
Elmer Gantry would be proud.
Did somebody mention increasing secularisation?
And so to the final gobbet, even though the pond has more cartoons to go ...
Gee, shouldn't that read "There is a void in the human heart that only grifters, snake oil salesmen, political crooks and hypocritical evangelicals can fill with talk of pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye"?
And here's one for the bromancer, who left his faith and his soul at the door ...
Polonius was in Gilmore over Christmas, no doubt setting the stage for his son-in-law's non-triumphal descent by parachute as the latest Liberal candidate and his dismal reception by the few remaining local Liberal yokels.
ReplyDeleteWarren Mundine"s campaign will be greatly helped by his gollumesque father-in-law hiding behind pot plants and acting as prompter when he forgets the lines polonius and Anne have written for him. When he says plenty of people wanted to talk politics in Gilmore, I guess he means himself, Anne, the daughter and the son-in-law huddled in the rain soaked tent at the Nowra camping ground.
What a sigh of joy Labor's Fiona Phillips must have given when the Political Polonius and Family Travelling Tent show set up shop at the Nowra Showground.
Hmm. I was thinking, soth, that indeed Polonius also qualified as a 'lesser gollum', but you've beaten me to it.
DeleteHowever, to quote another reptile who isn't even important enough to have achieved gollumesque status, given the defection of Julia 'the 5 minute Liberal' Banks, that Liberal folks now "are demanding candidates have a longer and more demonstrated history".
That's one that the Prime Gollum (aka SloMo) must surely have missed in respect of his anointed Gilmore candidate. Either that, or Peta is just being her usual very thick self.
I'm sure Tones would shirt-front Xi, just like he did Putin...
ReplyDeleteBut does he think that's a vote winner? I assume all that (worrying!?) level of Chinese investment in Sydney property includes plenty in Manly and Mosman. Tony doing a few rounds with the Dear Leader would surely trigger a certain amount of disinvestment, more disastrous for his electors' property portfolios than Zinger Bill's threats to negative gearing and CGT concessions. Good to see his mad skillz as a wrecker extend to himself.
Polonius is hot and bothered by the ABC watermelons asking unanswered questions intent on leaving an implication hanging that simply isn't true. So I'm sure he'll be knocking on Sheridan's door to upbraid him for the same scurrilous behaviour.
ReplyDelete"Has there ever been a Hollywood blockbuster that sold tickets in Australia equivalent to a third of the population?"
Despite Greg's feeble rhetoric implying the answer is "no", the answer is, in fact, yes. For example:
Star Wars - 8.4 million admissions, population 14.2 million - 59%
Crocodile Dundee - 8.8 million admissions, population 16 million - 55%
Avatar - 9.6 million admissions, population 22 million - 44%
Titanic - 8 million admissions, population 18.5 million - 43%
See they don't even have to be very good films. And that's not even counting earlier films like Gone With the Wind or the Sound of Music, which are too early for reliable data. SoM is late enough for a semi-reliable 80%+ estimate, and GWtW (based on the fact its inflation adjusted gross is four times Avatar's and it grossed $13 million raw, when most attendances were paying a shilling - 10 cents - a pop) was probably seen by over 200% of the population (remember, Greg counts repeat attendances as distinct, so I will too).
There are a shedload more in the 25 - 33% range as well - works of cinematic genius like Alvin Purple or The Phantom Menace.
Data from screenaustralia.gov.au and a rather good study from Swinburne Uni by Given and Goggin. I research so you don't have to :)
Of course, those cinema admissions figures assume that most people saw the movie in its first year of release. That might not be true of Star Wars, which did good business in its 1996 remastered release, but it's pretty solid for the others - rescreenings at arthouse cinemas don't add that much to the gross.
DeleteEven applying a fudge factor leaves all of these at or above Greg's "third of the population".
I thought the Beatles and the Rolling Stones et al might have totalled up a fair attendance too, FD.
DeleteOh dear, oh dear, oh dear; here goes Polonius flying off the rails yet again. Starting with a bunch of irrelevant history about Abbott, he gets all uptight about whether or not Steggall voted for Abbott. Note, not whether she did or could support the Liberal party, David Speers' question was very specifically about whether Steggall had voted for Abbott in various elections.
ReplyDeleteNow, as I understand it, one has to be actually resident and enrolled in an electorate to vote for candidates in that electorate, and during most of Abbott's time Steggall, who was born in 1972 and therefore was only 22 at Abbott's first byelection win, and that she spent much of the next ten years as only a partial resident of Australia because of competing in sporting events overseas (not a very reliable delivery of ski-able snow in Australia).
Now did Speer ask her whether she could have voted for Abbott or not ? Maybe she could, and maybe she wasn't even resident in the Warringah electorate for much of the time. Another fine example of appalling non-scholarship from both Speer and particularly Polonius.
Then moving right along, we get to where Polonius preaches: "...former BBC journalist Robin Aitken documents how BBC journalists are hostile to the "social conservative viewpoint" - so much so that they "don't even see what the problem is" with the British public broadcasters lack of political diversity".
Well apart from conflating "social conservative viewpoint" with "political diversity", I don't see what the problem is either. How much longer do the shrunken consciousness ones really expect us to go on giving homophobia, racism and neoliberalism "equal time" ?