There was a grand old tradition in Sydney's Domain which used to entrance the pond when it was down from the bush … and there's a tidy collection of photos about it here, largely skewed to Christadelphian Victor Zammit, though with the odd mention of the likes of Webster …
It used to be called Speakers' Corner, and these days the pond likes to think of itself as Reptile Ranters' Corner …
But does prattling Polonius qualify as a ranter, at least in his weekend columns? Of course he does, because at some point, he'll be unable to help himself, and he'll tart ranting about the ABC …
It's a truly wondrous, marvellous obsession, as year after year this Captain Ahab tosses his harpoon again and again at the gigantic ABC whale … so let us begin the search for the moment when the harpoon will surely be let loose …
Now the unwary or the inexperienced might think this is just going to be a standard Polonial rant about lefties, a favourite theme for Sydney Institute devotees … and it certainly starts out that way, with a bonus shot of good old King Leopold cleansed ...
Can you clean up ten million dead?
No matter, the Sydney Institute is in the business of tithing business, and don't look too closely, for fear of being blinded by the light ...
But where's that rant about the ABC? Patience, gentle reader, patience, it will come … there will have been some cardigan-wearer thought crime that roused Polonius to righteous indignation, and it will bubble over like milk frothed up for a decent coffee ...
Of course it's always a hoot when Polonius scribbles about intolerance, because truth to tell, the pond has never come across someone as intolerant of just about everything and everybody as Polonius (excluding of course persecuted child molesters in the Catholic church, who desperately need his support and forgiveness, because you know the ABC in the 1970s) …
As for that talk of Fox News, it was just a feint and a ploy and a pretence - remember you have to be delusional to be Polonius - that Fox News is fair and balanced, and thoughtful and forceful and intelligent and provoking …(well, maybe provoking).
For now at last we get to the ABC, an institution that Polonius can't stand, and which each week he apparently listens to, simply so he can be driven into a frothing, foaming, ranting frenzy ...
Indirectly, though he'd never admit it, Polonius is something of a Trump lover, and he's very intolerant of anyone carrying on about the Donald, the Chairman or such like … and when he gets going, he does a humdinger intolerant rant ...
From time to time, the pond dreams of receiving just a few bucks each time Polonius's keyboard has come out with "conservative-free zone", which these days really means a Polonius free zone. The pond would be a squillionaire …
And now since the pond is doing more Ranters' Corner, than a Sunday meditation, who better to join in, than the dog botherer?
When it comes to the dog botherer, the pond is alert to the use of "virtue signalling."
It's a sure sign that the dog botherer has run out of steam, and is in the middle of a rant. Let us do a word check of the text, in the hope that there might be another way for the pond to become a squillionaire …
The dog botherer's rants are inclined to cliché, you know, price of liberty, eternal vigilance, Western civilisation, and so on and so forth, and he routinely turns his rants into litanies of all that has agitated him in recent times … you know, the ABC and coverage of Donald Trump and climate science, but trust the pond, the words will come ...
Eureka. "Endless virtue signalling."
So soon in the piece, and yet so endlessly rewarding.
Admittedly this is a lot to sit through just for a couple of words, as if the dog botherer represented mainstream values, as if dog fucking was the normal sort of thing for the suburban pond to indulge in … and there's a price to pay, because once the doggie botherer has put the words out there, an endless litany of rage at the 'leets is sure to follow … what with the Chairman's workers now reduced to rags and tatters ...
"… those who want to put their virtue on parade"?
Almost, but no cigar, though some might find it a poetic echo of the original flourish, and feel it justifies ploughing through the rest of the typically turgid rant.
But that also means suffering the delusion that the dog botherer is in the mainstream, when the mainstream largely couldn't give a flying fuck about Sky News or the lizard Oz or all the rest of the Murdochian publications, at least if ratings and subscriptions are any guide. More might have missed the local suburban rags, with local news and lots of ads, and a free copy thrown over the fence … but not to worry, have faith, because in these troubled times, we know that the dog botherer has no virtues, and routinely signals his insulation from such noxious concepts with a goodly dose of bile ...
Around this time in a dog botherer rant, the pond is usually either asleep, rolling Jaffas down the aisles, as we used to do in the stalls in the old Capitol Theatre in Tamworth to teach the uppity prowling usher a lesson, or rolling around on the floor, in a fit of virtue signalled laughter ...
As with all the other reptiles who talk of Western Civilisation, it seems that the dog botherer has never heard of the wonders and pleasures of a vigorous bout of iconoclasm … but it's been going on from then to now ...
Why it's as western civilisation as steak and kidney pie and a glass of some dark Newcastle brew …
If only the reptiles had the first fucking clue about history …
And so to the last rant of the day, and it must be said that the pond is including it out of politeness, because something has gone wrong with Dame Slap. She's not the ranter she used to be … though she does her best …perhaps it's just that the tedious repetition produces a sensory overload ...
What is there that's worth looking for in Dame Slap? Well at some point this member of Gina's 'leet mob will pretend she's at one with the workers, a member of the silent majority, someone who believes in a fair go (at least for Gina and the IPA to screw workers), and so on and so forth…
It can lead to exasperation … the pond recalls it lead one exasperated reader to suggest she open a beauty parlour in Longreach (the pond prefers that old fashioned term to talk of hair salons, and stylists and such like).
But at least keeping a weather eye out for the Murdochian princess pretending to be a pea is a way of getting through the ranting ...
Ah poor Princess, denied her swim. So much suffering in the world, so much suffering experienced by the Dame ...
Now here it comes …here comes the delusion that Princess Slap (should she be elevated from mere Dame?) is at one with common folk ...
Ah, the good old middle Australian, proudly represented by Dame Slap, Gina and the IPA.
If only Dame Slap would become a forgotten Australian, and we could forget her love of climate science denialism, conspiracy theories, the Donald, and such like, or apparently, her bizarre love for Chris Lilley in blackface. Well she does call them comedies, which completely defies the pond's understanding of what "comedy" means ...
And there you have it. If that isn't a fine assembly of ranters, with revolutionary Princess (née Dame) Slap hinting that the time has come for common folk to mount a revolution, flout laws and take to the streets … oh wait, didn't she just spend an endless amount of indignation on people flouting laws and taking to the streets?
Inevitably, just like those old visits to the Domain, where the pond used to come away confused, the reptiles are bound to create chaos and confusion …
But at least we didn't get "Orwellian", another reptile favourite and another way to plunge the pond into confusion …
Enough of that nonsense. Let's hear it for Western Civilisation and its many glories …
I'm the fear addicted, a danger illustrated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're a firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the bitch you hated, filth infatuated, yeah
I'm the pain you tasted, fell intoxicated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the self inflicted, mind detonator, yeah
I'm the one infected, twisted animator
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter starter
"There was a grand old tradition in Sydney's Domain ..."
ReplyDeleteAnd a lesser, but valued, one on the Yarra Bank, DP:
https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/5231/download-report
A place where I first got live learning about the wonders of being Irish when, one Sunday, an earnest young man was spruiking about the evils of smoking when one of the audience, in a very audible Irish accent, interjected that: "My grandmother smoked the clay pipe every day and she died at 85 as healthy as anyone".
So Prattling Polonius says: "the impact of Marcuse's thought extends beyond the grave."
ReplyDeleteIt's just as though Senator Joseph McCarthy never existed, isn't it. It's just as though Prime Minister Menzies never strove to deny Australians freedom of assembly by banning the Communist Party in a 1951 referendum, isn't it. It's like there never was Eric Butler and an Australian League of Rights.
Not to mention all those other acts of suppression of freedom of belief and opinion. While looking at police brutality now, we might also consider significant police brutality back in the days of the student anti-apartheid demonstrations (mostly focused on visiting South African all white rugby teams back in 1971 and subsequently). To the point where Rupert Hamer's daughter complained to him about what happened at a protest march at La Tobe University.
Pity though, that our efforts were all for "other blacks". We just didn't seem to have the faintest inkling how badly we were behaving towards Australian indigenes. And it's taken until about now for that to be even partially corrected.
Or even just the police response to a women's occupation of the Richmond High School that Kennett had listed for closure: "Methods of crowd dispersal used by police on Monday 13 December 1993, including 'pressure holds' and a baton charge were subject to a Parliamentary Inquiry"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_High_School_(Victoria)
But hey, nobody cares about a bit of police violence against women, do they. And I'm sure that people from other places will have their own tales to tell, especially about that romantic freedom-loving ex-NZedder, Jo Bjelke-Bananas.
[Part 1]
So, next we have the Doggy Boverer ! Reading his rant reminds me of when I first started to read popular scifi mags (Astounding-Analog, Galaxy, New Worlds, Worlds of If etc), particularly John W Campbell's "Astounding" whence came the likes of Robert Heinlein. Simplistic right-wingnut worldview that didn't take too very long to get heartily sick of. Fortunately there were some readables, eg Isaac Asimov and his great classic Jokester. But it did kinda screw my mind for a while - and that's exactly what I reckon about the DBov: if I were about 10 years old again, he might just screw my mind for a year or two.
ReplyDeleteBut now, nearly seven decades later: on with the Dog Bov's thoughtless epistle.
"Eureka. "Endless virtue signalling." Yep, thar she blows !
Recalling what Chad passed on to us yesterday about his source telling him about "letters praising the Henry's exceptional grasp of Australian history and thanking him for explaining the [indigenous] problem in terms that a subscriber to [the Australian] might understand".
And now we have the Doggy Bov lining up for the same: in short, neither knowledge nor intelligence ever required, just endless simple minded repetition of the same junk lies, day after day after day. So I think I'll just leave him, and his perpetually enthralled audience, to their devotions.
But just one small comment: "Most Australians would never have marched in a protest and never will. The protesters are usually habitual."
Back in 1970, when Melbourne's population was just 2.5 million, over 100,000 turned out for Jim Cairns' anti-Vietnam rally and march. And I can assure the Doggy Bov, that the great majority of us were anything but "habitual".
https://www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3411534.htm
So now here we are with the MAGA cap lady once again, complaining that "A 17-year-old driver out for a lesson with her mum was fined in Melbourne for breaching public health orders."
Well actually, no she wasn't: common sense prevailed and the cops "dropped the fine":
https://www.3aw.com.au/tteenage-learner-driver-slapped-with-1600-fine-for-driving-with-her-mum-during-covid-19-lockdown/
Nothing much else worthy of comment, so that's about it.
The troika on offer today all have variations of the same style. Start out with dire warnings of the collapse of nations, nay, whole civilisations, and then descend into complaints about missing morning swims, ABC programming, useless monuments or the privations of wedding-venue proprietors (can anyone think of a more useless enterprise?).
ReplyDeleteIt's all pretty pedestrian stuff and requires a particular type of stupidity to try and spin it as some sort of vital issue for the average person.
Since limited reopening, I've spoken to a few people running cafes and a gym operator about the shutdown and they all have a rational acceptance of what happened. They might have wanted it moved along a bit more quickly, but there was no wailing or gnashing of teeth like you see above.
Now, with the Ponds indulgence, I might link a twitter pile-on involving one P van Onselen.
https://twitter.com/vanOnselenP/status/1271213014260174849
The Oscillating Fan makes pretence of being a thinking man's conservative but has form in making stupid statements like Nazism had it's roots in socialism (National Socialism). You could argue that, but it requires the head to be tilted to one side and squinting through both eyes.
In this case, the likes of Tony Windsor have pointed out that he is wrong, but the real question seems to be, even if it was true, why would it be acceptable that the Prime Minister couldn't or wouldn't bother to inform himself? Why wouldn't we expect more from a public official? Or perhaps, why do conservatives like stupid politicians like Bush, Reagan or Abbott?
PVOs little twitter effort says: "I genuinely don’t think the factual mistakes the PM makes are wilful, I think it’s more likely ignorance."
DeleteOf course it's ignorance, the massive, willful ignorance of a man who has never tried to learn, who got to be PM via native cunning and is a member in good voice and standing of Horizon Pentecostal Antichrist.
Really, he's basically just another Trump: a "stable genius" who's blessed by bountiful intuitive understanding.
And now that he, and we, have acknowledged that Australia did have slavery, I wonder if we could now perhaps acknowledge the Tasmanian genocide. Or is that still too much honesty to ask for.