Things are gradually returning to normal at the lizard Oz, though the shuffling around of the deck chairs on the commentary Titanic continued this day …
The Oreo is back in her Monday slot, defending the nonsensical, and only deserving of a Steve Bell cartoon, as found here …
It's odd to see our Henry move away from his Friday slot, but whatever, and the Caterist used to be on a Tuesday, but any day is a good day for a Caterist.
The big mystery is what has happened to Major Mitchell. The pond sent out an 'MIA' alert, and it seems the reptiles last heard from him back in December. He's now officially worse than the ABC, which is a dreadful state of affairs.
Never mind, there's an abundance of riches, but sadly the pond can only deal with two of them.
Two shall be the number, and the number shall be two, and of this number, the prime number is the dog botherer, and so his howl of rage into the ether shall lead the way …because the poor little doggie is still feeling the heat for his shameless conduct over the years, and now he not only has to remain a devoted climate denialist, he has to deny the denialism, which produces an abundance of denials, enough to keep de Nile in water for years …
Well of course dear sweet doggie denialist doofus, and the notion that you and the Bolter reporting the likes of the lesser member of the Kelly gang and such like weren't at the heart of it offers a false modesty the pond doesn't know how to handle.
Please, continue proud and out, don't let these indolent wastrels and nit-pickers hamper your ongoing denialism - denial of denialism is such a lowering of the standards …
Oh sure, people will joke, and laugh, and dance amongst the dead trees and creatures and people with Murdochian delight …
Stay strong …stay Plimerish!
Was it only on the weekend that Bjorn came out to deliver his usual nonsense?
And the Bolter was back, blathering about the warmists in the usual way, apparently unaware that things had been a tad warm this summer …
Stay out and proud, doggie dear, and please, scribble lines which can be read by anybody with a sense of comedy timing …
"…it is my choice as to the facts …"
Exactly, and long may you choose the facts that suit you, so that proud Murdochian traditions can continue … for the gatling's jammed, the square runs red with bloodied denials, and there's a rat in the family ranks …
Oh poor suffering, tortured doggie ...
Or it might just require ongoing reading of the dog botherer! What a cunning way to ensure ongoing readership interest! How soon before the dog botherer can put aside his weak defensive strokes, and return to his full blooded acing of the warmists …
And so to the bonus, another denialist, this time of the Caterist kind, surely the best guide to the movement of flood waters in quarries the land has ever seen, but this time, the Caterist must wade through the floods surrounding SloMo … not that the pond bothers to read News Poll and its easy way to fill in a Monday …
The pond has no idea why the Caterist is sounding so agitated. Everything is for the best. Sure, there have been some cheap jokes …
But great galloots aside, there's a chance for the greatest galloot of all to return to centre stage, and surely he's the main man …
Oh how the pond has missed him, oh how climate science needs him, and how the agenda-less agenda would benefit from his return ...
Oh dear, already, and yet too soon?
Are we ready for reptile quoting reptile, and the Caterist resorting to recycling nattering "Ned" this early in the new year?
It can't be a good sign … and so to a little standard denialism, and a recalling of Brian Fisher's discredited work, because what's a reptile has to do when the heat is on … rather like doggies returning to stale, weary and useless vomit, warmed by the noon day sun ...
Gas? But wasn't the dog botherer only a few short pars ago reviling those who relied on oil and gas?
Sometimes it gets so the pond is completely confused by the denialists who refuse to go the full denialist hog …
What on earth is he blathering about, this flood water Caterist, proposing that emissions reduction demands a serious policy response in its own right?
Does he think all those years of denialism are forgotten simply because it's the Year of the Caterist Rat?
Is it time for the Caterist to wash out his mouth with soap? What next, a proposal that coal might be priced out of the market in a short time? Whither Adani, whither years of reptile training?
And that's how it goes. Confronted with Scotty from marketing and Bridget from distribution, and climate denialism lurking in the woodwork, the reptiles are in a spot of bother …
Never mind, as always, the immortal Rowe can find a little humour in the situation, with more Rowe here …
DP - again, thank you for being our surrogate reader - and, more importantly, translator - of columns from Ms Albrechtson (yesterday) and the Executive Director today. It does save so many of us the agony of seeking meaning in these 'works'. I have attended National Press Club gatherings, and still watch the broadcast version occasionally, (so cannot claim to be as obsessive as the Executive Director of the Sydney Institute appears to be). I cannot recall seeing any of the Albrechtson, Cater, (Chris) Kenny, Akerman, Oriel, Bolt (either) Henderson - or, insert name of 'opinion writer' - as faces in the crowd, and certainly not to ask a question, at any of these functions. Perhaps they are all much occupied moving from country pub to country pub determining what the 'quiet' ones are concerned about. Other Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI totally agree OA, firstly in respect of DP's tireless provision of cutting commentary on these sanctimonious Murdochophiles, and secondly in your noting the conspicuous absence of said scribblers at the Press Club. Although I can't really picture Henderson or Cater in a dinkum country pub: more like some mahogany-lined boardroom bar.
DeleteThanks for the commentary. I was going to (and still may) comment on Kenny's piece but I've become somewhat jaded with his writing of late. This "article" is so full of shit I really don't where to begin. I feel it would take twice as much text to correctly respond to all the BS than the actual article. I often wonder if people like Kenny really believe what they are writing?
ReplyDeleteAnd that, GuyM, is a central plank of reptile agitprop: it always takes much more to refute nonsense than to push it. Look up the 'Gish Gallop' in wiki some day.
DeleteAs to believing things, that's a question I've tried to answer many times. Mostly I think it's a case of 'salesman's belief' - which is well grasped by ScottyfromMarketing of course - that they fervently believe everything they say for just however long it takes to say it. Cf 'Harold Hill' in The Music Man.
Though sometimes I think there's a kind of real 'split personality' effect and they can switch between their genuinely believing persona and their 'just a quiet (normal) Australian' persona more or less at will.
But it still puzzles me.
Hi GrueBleen, Yeah I'm familiar with the Gish Gallop and this pile of dreck from the botherer is certainly a fine example. I generally find it when arguing with creationists, since that is what Gish was, but it has been hijacked by various science denial/conspiracy groups.
DeleteI do find it a puzzle still. I can't help but think that people like Kenny simply must be smart enough to understand that the crap he spouts must be at least questionable.
He doesn't care GuyM. Nobody survives long in the Murdoch universe if they get stuck on facts - they need "mental flexibility" in case the master changes his mind.
DeleteGood point about the creationists though. Funny how the nutjobs all converge like cockroaches under a linoleum tile. Also funny how they find ways of monetising the delusions.
Indeed Gish's main use of the Gallop was for pushing creationism (and I'm glad you're familiar with it), but of course it has been put to use in many different contexts. And basically it works everywhere and everywhen.
DeleteAs to Kenny and his nonsense, the best I've come upon is Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking Fast and Slow'. 'Fast thinking' is generally the kind of 'reflex reaction' thinking that only evaluates a few variables: did one of "us" say this ? does it conform to my identity position ? does it attack, or at least discombobulate, my identity's enemies ? It's almost like a bacterium attacking a cell: it fakes its way into the cell's "receptors" to make a deep and permanent attachment.
All reptiles, and the vast majority of wingnuts, function in a permanent state of 'fast thinking'. Slow thinking requires reflection, evidence and logic; way too hard, and too slow, for the majority of the human race for the majority of their time. Which s why when occasional panic or desperation forces a reptile/wingnut into 'slow thinking' the result always comes as a serious, often life-shattering, revelation.
And that's always worth avoiding by any means possible.
The Monthly Magazine a "fringe leftist publication".
ReplyDeleteFunny how you will find it in any halfway decently stocked newsagent and in many libraries too. So too with the Quarterly Essay which is published by the same company. As distinct from Quadrant, the IPA Review, Newsweekly, and the CIS Policy magazine.
Oh come on, Anony; anything but a Murdoch press rag is a "fringe leftist (or even maybe an extreme leftist) publication" to them.
DeleteI wonder just how much longer the Doggy Bov is going to have to keep droning on in defence of the Murdochrat empire - of which he somehow seems to think that James is still a member in good standing.
ReplyDeleteBut he's very good at pretending (if in fact it is pretending) that the world began about in the middle of last week, so decades of Murdochian lies somehow never happened. There never was such a thing as News of the World, it's just a filthy rumour. And there never was a loony conspiracy theorist cum climate denialist named Monckton either; that was just a co-illusion of Dame Slap's.
As to Goosebumps Cater, well, I've always found it just a little bit perplexing as to whether somebody could be even more tediously wearisome than the Doggy B, but Cater manages it every single time.
And talking about the lost and missing, DP, yes, what has happened to the Major Mitch ? Did he finally find that Lenin medal and transmogrify somehow into a resident of nirvana ?
Goosebumps really is the gift that goes on giving. A fine example of Dunning-Kruger effect, he is moving on from hydrology and is now sorting out energy policy.
ReplyDeleteConsider Goosebump's ramblings about the benefit's of gas as a transition fuel (don't mention the fugitive emissions). Despite the Doggers claim in the earlier snippet that critics fail "challenge a single assertion or point of fact" it seem to me that literally thousands of words have been written refuting virtually everything stated in the Oz. Most are written by people more qualified than the Murdocrats, data is linked and arguments carefully reasoned.
Consider these offerings:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/01/scott-morrison-is-stuck-in-a-time-warp-more-gas-is-not-the-answer
or
https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1223180422160490496
Of course, the other approach is to look at what has actually happened where a transition is occurring. In South Australia's case a lot of folk were surprised that less gas was used as renewable capacity increased. Try comparing actual spot prices for renewables to the assumptions in Brian Fishers work - oops.
We could go on all day, I guess, but what's the point? Thankfully, the idiocy is mainly trapped behind the paywall except for Auntie's efforts at "balance".