In which does a bait and switch for Lloydie's return, and regulars Dame Slap and "Ned" do their thing ...

Bait and switch? 

Would the pond sink so low as to pull a reptile trick, and bait and switch, and offer up a hint of Clive, and then do no follow up?

Of course not. Everyone knows Clive has a thing about China. What's the point of looking at that?

The pond's duty is to supply the work of the cult master. Why, this week it's as surreal as a Dali, it's as elegant and clever as that Japanese work the pond has on its lounge room wall …

And now charges of bait and switch dismissed, the pond can get on with vital work, because Lloydie has returned. 

Fresh from saving the Amazon, Lloydie is back to celebrate the lizard Oz's deep love of dinkum clean Oz coal, damn you useless sheep-loving Kiwis, and how could Clive compete with that?

By golly whenever the pond sees a smirking Kiwi, it shouts 'you can try to pry a lump of coal from by cold dead hands and see how far you get' …

Take it away Lloydie …

Damn you Kiwis, all we do is supply a little coal to China and other parts of Asia. What they do with it is their business,  it's nothing to do with us … and remember if you carry on about coal, Lloydie will do a sheep joke, and that'll stop you in your fancy pants, lah di dah tracks …(or should that be luh du duh?)

The pond will leave others to work out the logic in those last couple of pars - the pond is a bear of little brain up against Lloydie's giant coal-loving intellect -  but will suggess that it helps explain why Lloydie did such a terrific job saving the Amazon …

The pond thought a cartoon necessary as a break before moving on to the tough Wednesday assignment of Dame Slap …

The pond supposes so. First kill useless Dame Slap, then kill all the other useless lebensunwertes leben reptiles, and where's the harm? 

Say what, the pond is revealing something of its ancient German blut?

Wiki away here, the pond will stick to Dame Slap and her useless life-selecting columns ...

Indeed, indeed …

Please, a little euthanasia, and preferably explained by a committed Catholic ...

Well the pond has done the Nazis, why not do Pope Francis, as somebody mentioned Catholicism …

Today I would like to continue the catechesis on the Fifth Word of the Decalogue, “Do not kill”. We have already unlined how this commandment reveals that in the eyes of God, human life is precious, sacred and inviolable. No-one can disregard the life of others or his own; indeed man carries within him the image of God and is the object of His infinite love, whatever the condition may be in which he is called to existence.
In the Gospel reading we have just listened to, Jesus reveals to us an even deeper meaning to this commandment. He affirms that, before God’s tribunal, even anger against a brother is a form of homicide. For this reason the apostle John writes: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer” (I Jn 3: 15). But Jesus does not stop at this, and by the same logic He adds that even insults and disdain can kill. And we are accustomed to insulting, it is true. And an insult comes as easily to us as if it were a breath. And Jesus says to us, “Stop, because the insult hurts, it kills”. Disdain. “But I … this people, I disdain them”. And this is a way of killing the dignity of a person. It would be good if this teaching of Jesus entered into the mind and heart, and each one of us said: “Do not insult anyone ever again”. It would be a good intention, because Jesus tells us: “Look, if you disdain, if you insult, if you hate, this is murder”.
No human code of law equates such different acts by assigning them the same degree of judgment. And coherently Jesus even invites us to interrupt the offering of the sacrifice in the temple if we remember that a brother is offended by us, to go and look for him and reconcile with him. We too, when we go to Mass, should have this attitude of reconciliation with the people we have had problems with. Even if we thought bad about them, we insulted them. But many times, while we wait for the priest to say Mass, we chat and talk badly about the others. But this must not be done. Think of the gravity of the insult, of contempt, of hatred: Jesus puts them on the line of killing.
What does Jesus mean by extending the field of the Fifth Word to this point? Man has a noble life, very sensitive, and possesses a hidden self no less important than his physical being. Indeed, an inappropriate sentence is enough to offend the innocence of a child. A gesture of coldness is enough to hurt a woman. To break the heart of a young person is enough to deny his trust. To annihilate a man, just ignore him. Indifference kills. It is like saying to the other person: “You are a dead man for me”, because you killed him in your heart. Not to love is the first step to killing; and not killing is the first step to love.
In the Bible, at the beginning, we read that terrible phrase that came out of the mouth of the first murderer, Cain, after the Lord asked him where his brother is. Cain replies: “I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen 4: 9). [1] This is how killers: “It does not concern me”, “It is your business, not mine” and similar things. Let us try to answer this question: are we our brothers’ keepers? Yes, we are! We are each other’s keepers! And this is the path of life, it is the path of non-killing.
Human life needs love. And what is authentic love? It is what Christ showed us, that is, mercy. The love we cannot do without is the one that forgives, which welcomes those who have harmed us. None of us can survive without mercy, we all need forgiveness. So, if killing means destroying, suppressing, eliminating someone, then not killing will mean curing, valuing, including. And also forgiving.
No one can deceive himself by thinking, “I'm fine because I do not do anything wrong”. A mineral or a plant has this kind of existence, but a man does not. A person – a man or a woman – no. More is demanded of a man or woman. There is good to be done, prepared for each of us, each to his own, which makes us truly ourselves. “Do not kill” is an appeal to love and mercy, it is a call to living according to the Lord Jesus Who gave His life for us and rose for us. Once we all repeated, here in the Square, a phrase of a saint on this. Perhaps it will help us: “Doing no harm is a good thing. But not doing good is not good”. We must always do good. We must go further.
He, the Lord, Who incarnating Himself sanctified our existence; He, Who with His blood made it priceless; He, “the author of life” (Acts 3: 15), thanks to Whom each person is a gift from the Father. In him, in His love stronger than death, and through the power of the Spirit that the Father gives us, we can accept the Word “Do not kill” as the most important and essential appeal: that is, not killing means a call to love.
Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2259: “In the account of Abel's murder by his brother Cain, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history. Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. God declares the wickedness of this fratricide: ‘What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. and now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand’ (Gen 4: 10-11)”.

Tush Pope, be quiet, the pond is in the confessional with Dame Slap, working on the tricky and tough questions as to who to kill ...

Yes, this is not an immoral endeavour. This is not even utilitarian. The pond loves its coal, and the pond enjoys a mercy killing along with any decent, realistic, honest reptile coping with an imperfect world …

And so the final treat of the day, in which nattering "Ned" bores readers of the pond silly, and makes them grateful that they can spend precious time in pursuit of things that matter (please, not things that batter, even if it's a nice batter, and produces a delicious scone).

Of course Jim lad, and "Ned" himself, are just in the right age range, and stage of senility, for the pond and Dame Slap to make a bold move …

But is it right, is it fair? Can "Ned" save himself and Jim lad from a noble sacrifice? Will there be a monumental and epic struggle to irresistibly change course?

Can "Ned" spend apocalyptic adjectives and adverbs like a drunk confronting the pink elephant of change?

Oh dear … has something happened to traditional Liberal party values? Are we about to embark on a centralised economy? Will idle youff get a living start to life? How shocking, how outrageous.

And what about traditional Republican values? What about traditional Murdochian values? As usual, the immortal Rowe has a view, with more views here …

Yes, where is John Wilkes Booth when he's badly needed? 

Well if the Donald thinks he's more hard done by than honest Abe, why should he get through the play and go on to the next TV performance?

Okay, as usual, the pond got distracted from the interminable chicken little handwringing of worrywart "Ned" … but now with a smile on face, the pond can head back into the fray … because we're talking cosmic fundamentals here about a universal crisis, and intense conflicts, though fuelled by take-outs, and if you don't get all that, you might be wondering how the world managed to recover from two world wars and the Spanish flu, which really should be called the UK or Kansas flu … and you might wonder why "Ned" is addicted to wild-eyed generalisations, when really there's every indication he doesn't have the first clue.

Not to worry, in to the impenetrable fog for more on the fundamental conflict ...

Indeed, indeed, and what a leader they have to pave the way, and help society to change …

And so to the last gobbet of "Ned", beginning with a question about which the pond gives precisely two hoots ...

Is it only the pond, or has social isolation and distancing sent "Ned" quietly bonkers? Without a doubt, he's reached new levels of portentous solemnity this day, and then the best he can do is sit on the wall like Humpty Dumpty, and pose a question?

Speaking of questions:

Has he the remotest idea of what's actually happening in the world? Has he spent too long in the Murdochian bunker?

Has he even thought for a nanosecond what would happen if Fox News and the chairman succeed in getting the Donald four more years? What happens then to the righteous rhetoric, given the Donald's main skill set involves bankrupting casinos?

Does he realise that his blather about once-in-a-lifetime opportunities is really just a way of saying that there's a chance to keep on lying, and fooling the gullible?

As for the pond in this reptile-saturated world … lovers of the Donald, Dame Slap donners of the MAGA cap ...