In which nattering "Ned" provides the late Sunday treat ...

The pond was almost moved to tears by the Penbo tribute to that brave croweater Cory warrior … bowing out, "integrity intact", it proclaimed ...though the illustration seemed to undersell his virtues …

 

Please, show some class, lizard Oz warriors…

And then there were the books he wrote, or might have written …

 

Well at least the call-out culture isn't killing comedy, and so the brave warrior departs, "integrity intact", though keeping one's integrity in the cause of monumental stupidity, climate science denialism, and assorted other follies remains a mystery to the pond. Still, he did take down assorted fundamentalist croweater Christians with him, so there must be something to be said for integrity … in the cause of monumental stupidity.

But enough of Cory, who will trouble the pond no more. No onion muncher he, he no onion muncher, just another Wildean rocket stick deep in forgotten mud … and so the pond must only pause to note that the lizard Oz's bashing of TG folk continues …

…before moving on to the late Sunday after dinner mint, and where the bromancer has had a lock-down on this space, this week the pond turned to nattering "Ned" in the knowledge that his hand-wringing, sackcloth and ashes routines would provide entertainment for gerontology students …

If "Ned" tells the pond not to panic, for some strange reason, the pond immediately begins to panic …not least because there comes a sense that "Ned" will carry on like the Donald in an almost hour long call to Fox and Friends ...

The pond knew immediately what the problem was … pesky, difficult cultural and moral guardians with their absurd talk of climate science, and gays as human beans, and such like other outrages designed to hoodwink your quiet Australians … while the 'leets went on with their cowboy and Indian games speaking of wampum in forked tongues …

Why it was Shakspereian (well if he couldn't spell his name one way, why should the pond?)

Oh dear, it's taking a while but soon enough we'll get to understanding that it's not simple avarice and greed, it's all the fault of cultural progressivism … here, have a cartoon warning of the dangers of that fiendish form of fanaticism …

And just to balance that pan-Pacific intrusion, here's an argument that will come in handy later, thanks to the infallible Pope.

Now Herr Freud, channelled by "Ned",  let us deal with all this blather about cultural progressivism ...

Yes, everything's for the best in the best of all worlds, and how lucky is that, how lucky to be simple-minded, how lucky not to have to bother to walk a mile in someone else's wretched shoes …or ask awkward questions ...

Questions, questions, and admittedly they're of the trans-Pacific kind, but "Ned" and "SloMo" have some local suggestions to keep the questions flowing here …

Ah, the worry, the pond can always rely on "Ned" to run around in Chicken Little mode suggesting the sky might fall in … and indeed it might, but really when you think of it, the actual corporate home of News Corp is in the best of hands, and is cheered on daily by the Murdochians, so who could imagine the world taking a wrong turn?

 

But do bedtime stories and turkeys on toast placate our "Ned"? Not on your Nelly …

Yes, indeed, he's found a forceful formula for common sense …pretend he's doing something about climate science, while staying on the right side of the climate denialists that litter News Corp, have done his dog whistle in a way that reassures them that his policies are embedded in a lump of dinkum clean Oz coal, oi, oi, oi ...

Now he just needs to carry the farce through in insouciant style …

Now the pond makes no apology for interlarding jokes from across the Pacific … it's the only way that the pond can make it through a bout of nattering "Ned" …

Yes, at long last, we've reached the final stage of the argument … and once again the infallible Pope is on hand to provide some help …

We've all been there before, we're doing our bit, and that's good enough, because anything else would be reckless …

Put it another way …

And so to a final "Ned" gobbet, which is irritating to the pond because there were many more cartoons that could have served as interstitials …

A credible agenda? But surely we have one. Dinkum clean Oz coal, oi, oi, oi, and pure prime Angus beef in charge of energy … that's sure to fix what ails ya …

And so to a few final cartoons, as words at last fail nattering "Ned", and the hand wringing comes to an end … until next time …