En vacance perhaps, but always time to meditate with Polonius on a Sunday ...

 

 

 

 

The pond is currently on light reptile duties, but will always find time for a dose of Polonial prattle. 

 

In fact, the pond still feels a little guilt at putting Polonius behind Killer Creighton in the best holiday lizard Oz reading contest ... as if saying nothing at great length wasn't a skill worth cultivating ...

 

And so to the usual Polonial history lesson ...

 

 

Thank the long absent lord that for once there was no mention of Ming the Merciless or Pig Iron Bob, just talk of Labor pacifists and appeasers.

Just as well, speaking as we are of uncertainties, no need to mention certain sordid matters such as pig iron to Japan or Ming's admiration of Adolf ... we can all remember how the country voted on that one.

And now, speaking of certainties, it turns out that all that was just shadow boxing, or a kind of impenetrable Polonial foreplay, because it turns out that Polonius has nothing much to say, nothing much to judge, and nothing much to predict ...

 

 

Talk about scintillating insights. Social conservatives aren't big on liberal thinking? Who'd have thunk it, in a gay, wild, abandoned sort of way? If it ain't DLP and B.A. Santamaria, it ain't really Polonial.

Indeed, indeed, and let us not speak of climate science, a subject that has always made Polonius feel uncomfortable ...

Let us hope instead that Santa was kind to both Joel and Polonius ...

 

 

Never mind, just one more small gobbet, and the Polonial holiday chore is done ...

 

Say what? He pulled a Rumsfeld, but didn't even have the sensa huma to do the full known unknown unknown unknown routine?

Just we don't know much at all? But we already knew that, we already knew that Polonius was clueless, more in a greying than a blonde way, and didn't know much at all, and each week would turn up to explain how little he knew or understood ...

Feeling a tad dissatisfied at once again keeping company with the clueless, the pond thought it might turn to the lizard Oz editorialist to see how the war with China would go this year ...

The pond apologises, but it couldn't help but notice that ad on the right. The pond almost always refuses to indulge in click bait, and for good reason ...

 

 

 Click on it, and suddenly you're fighting 'roaches on Uranus ... but it's that time of year when a little light-headed giddiness doesn't go astray, so what the hell Archie, toujours gai, the pond thought it would give it a go ...

And what do you know ...

Content produced in partnership
with Philip Morris International

And what do you know, even more ...

While the best thing any smoker can do is quit tobacco and nicotine altogether, the reality is that many adult smokers in Australia will continue to smoke cigarettes – one of the most harmful ways to consume nicotine – unless the government rethinks its tobacco control policy.
Yet, our politicians still choose to defy evidence and shun technology which can lead to better outcomes.
With the right regulatory encouragement and support from civil society, cigarette sales can end, meaning that a smoke-free future is attainable for the current generation of adult smokers. The benefits it can bring to the people who would otherwise continue to smoke, and hence to global public health, are enormous. We should not waste this opportunity to change the laws in this country for the better.
It’s time for the policy makers, regulators and health authorities in Australia to look at the science and support common sense, science-based regulations for smoke-free alternatives that can help smokers leave cigarettes behind.

There's a lot more of that sort of shit, but the pond thought that the best of the shit emanating from Philip Morris, courtesy of the reptiles ...

Having been a slut and a whore over the years, the pond has always been a part of the "reclaim the word" movement, but really, that's just too slutty and whorish, even for the pond.

So it's come to this in the reptile business plan, and so early in the year ... big tobacco, big coal, etc, etc. What a bunch of sluts and whores they are, how they demean the honest, worthy business of being sluttish and whorish ...

What's that you say? How goes the war on China?

Sorry, the pond completely forgot about it, but not to worry, it's going well ... you see the reptiles have Paul Monk to crib from and what is needed is a sensible approach, and a return to old days and old ways...

 

Indeed, indeed, what we need to do is reform the British Empire, because things are going simply splendidly, spiffingly well in the old country ...

More Graudian cartoons here, and a chance for the pond to be post-modern, post-ironic, post-frivolous and post-referential very early in the year ...

Sorry, back for a last word on that war with China ...

 

 

All that, and in the end, we should meet with them at a ministerial level? 

That's it, that's the reptile war on China? Do a meet and greet?

Ah well, never mind, please, in the meet and greet, don't forget to mention clean, dinkum, pure, innocent Oz coal, it's a winner for China, it's a winner for Oz, and it's a winner for the planet ...

Oh yes, and Philip Morris wants to help people to leave cigarettes behind ...

Sheesh, it's already shaping up to being a pond sort of year, when that's the last sort of year the pond wants ...