Oh sheesh, he would say that, wouldn't he? Why do the reptiles bother? Why would the pond bother? Read Rove? Might as well do the biblical thing with the eyes, and get on with the plucking rather than the mind fucking ...
For a start, even in the header, he manages to get things dead wrong ...the President's first weeks have seen a Foxian race to genuine weirdness ...
Oh yes there's plenty of Google links at the moment, though who knows about the future.
Meanwhile, the Q is inside the Murdochian hen house! Not that we should feel left out or at a loose end. The Q is also alive and well at home ...
Trust the plan, listen to the Murdochians, join SloMo in speaking in tongues to imaginary friends, and soon the world will be transformed ...
Up against this sort of stuff, the rest of the reptile stew has a hard time holding the pond's attention ... look at this wretched mob, and the wretched front page of the wretched tree-killer edition ...
What to do, oh dear sweet absent lord and Q, what to do?
Luckily, as his wont, the erudite hole in the bucket man was to hand, and the reptiles had yet another chance to show off a prize loon in our Henry's featured photo ... what a lovely pair they make, so alike ...
Ah, that's better, the pond felt immediately at home, back in the world where the world was created in seven days, Adam and Eve were around to set the domestic housekeeping rules for angry Sydney Anglicans in search of a complimentary woman, and Leviticus might warn of the dangers of shellfish and mixing fabrics ...
And yet there was still a powerful temptation, a yearning to learn more about that Crikey story here ... likely paywall affected ...
By golly, that's rich ... Tucker on board, and the movement well advanced down under, and SloMo's secret plan to secure the next election, and slaughter all the pedophile-loving, pizza-devouring leftists and greenies ready to be enacted.
Just remember you heard the tip from P ... as the pond would like to be known going forward ...
Never mind, the pond is of course of an elevated mind set, and always turns to our erudite Henry for sage advice and historical references, and so we should begin today's journey with that homophobic bigoted image of a woman whose only discernible ability - before she went barking mad and turned into one of the pond's aunts - was to hit tennis balls around a court, as meaningless an activity as reading the reptiles ...
What the fuck? Our Henry has wheeled out Hobbes to explain a love of gongs, including those of the scrambled eggs kind? How on earth does this help with the desire to play ostentatious dress-up games, be a good frock wearer like the Pellists, or don a penguin suit, or drone on like a portentous pompous ponce, and be rewarded with the chance to wear academic garb?
And is it half as interesting as the current crop of barking mad loons intent on a new sovereign order, and them so close to home?
How Tucker and the Murdochians would approve ... that race to weirdness is consuming the world, and all poor old Henry can do is invoke nasty, brutish and short Hobbes:
For such is the nature of man, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves: For they see their own wit at hand, and other mens at a distance.
Now there's a challenge for our Henry, who else has he got in his portentous locker of references?
Rousseau! Another passing fair noble reference. Is there a celebration of mortifying wanking to go with it?
No doubt our erudite Henry, should he have lived in Adolf's times, would have been pleased and honoured to receive the Goethe Medallion for Art and Science (oh how the Nazis loved their awards and they had the best uniforms too, such a divine black, and wiki up an award for yourself here).
But was it all as interesting as Q being in the hen house, and not just in Congress, but alive and well with Tucker and among us down under?
Never mind, bewildered supporters ... just remember what comes before Q! And join P in attending to the next gobbet of the erudite Henry ...
Oh fuck, the cancel culture seamlessly woven into an echoing Robespierre, and talk of the scythes of tall poppy hunters in a rhetorical flight of fancy that shows the spirit of Q is alive in our Henry ... but really, it's no biggie, it's simply that the chance to stand in front of a dangerous, destructive lunatic and collect a gong, or even an award remembering the empire of good Queen Bess, sometimes loses its appeal ...
For those wanting more, with active links, the story is at the NY Times here ... and now for the big reveal, as our Henry takes a firm stand, and refuses nobly in his final gobbet to accept a meaningless gong from either Adolf or the Donald, and doesn't think much of a system that rewards a barking mad bigot for the ability to bash a tennis ball ...
Oh fucketty fuck, sorry, he didn't, he just offered more pompous, portentous blather, as is his wont ... but never mind P followers, when it comes to our erudite Henry, he'll be on hand next week, and P guarantees the best is yet to come ...
Speaking of the best coming, how nice of the immortal Rowe to share the pond's delight in SloMo's leaky vessel ... with more chances to sail with Rowe here ...
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteIf our Henry was looking for an example of a shameless, dishonourable rogue who was quite willing to accept a made up award from a set of charlatans who were attempting to represent the country that he renounced in order to score more cash, then he need look no further than his own employer;
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/01/27/rupert-murdoch-australia-day-foundation/
Pretty certain this outside the pay wall.
DiddyWrote
Well fair go, DW, Roopie already owns a Gulf Stream 650 and also, apparently, a superyacht named Vertigo and a bed-warmer named Jerry Hall, so what else is there left to buy in the way of superior positional goods.
DeleteIs the Henry quietly seeking Balm in Gilead? For him to use the better quote from Hobbes suggests he has some self-awareness. Did he go on with the rest of the para. from 'Leviathan'? - which rounds out the economic perspective - "But this proveth rather that men are in that point equall, than unequall. For there is not ordinarily a greater sign of the equall distribution of any thing, than that every man is contented with his share.”
ReplyDeleteI think maybe Hobbes should have got the message about "shifting baselines", Chad. There is not ordinarily a greater sign of the passivity of the human race than the almost universal acceptance of "what we've got" even if it is just a pile of reeking merde.
DeleteReading again what DP has put up of the Henry column for this day - it is all a bit of a meander, rather than trying to keep a foot on a shifting baseline.
DeleteDisregard the passing reference to scythes and poppies - the various ‘tall poppy’ myths too easily contradict each other, and what is considered the modern Australian interpretation - of envious locals trying to draw down their more talented fellows - does not fit any of the earlier stories involving Gabii and Tarquinius.
Hobbes has set out his reasoning very clearly - but the Henry has come at it from the other direction. In ‘Leviathan’, Chapter 17, Hobbes writes -
‘It is true that certain living creatures, as Bees and Ants, live sociably one with another, and yet have no other direction than their particular judgements and appetites; nor speech, whereby one of them can signifie to another , what he thinks expedient for the common benefit; and therefor some man may perhaps desire to know, why Man-kid cannot do the same. To which I answer; First, that men are continually in competition for Honour and Dignity, which these creatures are not; and consequently amongst men there ariseth on that ground, Envy and Hatred, and finally Warre; but amongst those, not so.’
Could not be simpler - unless you are writing a column for the Flagship.
There is much of amusement to be mined from Hobbes ‘Human Nature and De Corpore Politico’, but the Henry seems to have left that on the shelf.
There is much irony in Hobbes’ further discussion in ‘Leviathan’, that while passions cause men to differ - science should bring them together and to agree on prudent courses of action, because it was well - proven. Yep - that is why Limited News so steadily seeks to erode the science on climate, and the health of the public (where is that Chiropractor to the Stars again?) and managing water resources and . . .
They tell me that bees, and ants, can 'talk' to each other - at least about such matters as the location of foodstuffs - via their 'dancing'. But I doubt that it's sufficient for a well argued discussion as to who should lead the swarm, or whether they should abandon their native socialism and strike out as individualistic capitalists. Though I do understand that the native Australian bees are, indeed, rugged individualists compared to the imported European swarmers. Ants somewhat less so, though.
Delete'Chiropractor to the Stars' ? Hmm, apparently that is one LeRoy Perry nowadays, though I have this fleeting recall of an English emigrant to the USA many years ago who qualified for that title, but got into some sort of strife and may have ended his own life.
But Hobbesian "competition for Honour and Dignity" ? Not in the human race I've lived amongst. And most definitely not amongst the reptiles or their owners.
Sheesh Chadders give the poor old hole in the bucket man a break, instead of knocking him down with a fetching quote, and yes GB, the hunter ants talk to each other, because the moment the pond puts down a treat, the call goes out, and suddenly there's a swarm of ants devouring the treat.
DeleteThere's only one solution - total war ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiningen_Versus_the_Ants
Oh thank you Dorothy for that reminder. Pleased it has been so detailed in the Wiki. There may yet be similar stories from the spread of Fire Ants in Queensland - another triumph from what is now Biosecurity Australia.
DeleteThere's an awful lot of ants of various kinds on this planet, P, and they'll probably still be here long after homo sapiens sapiens is extinct. Especially given that:
DeleteAnts and humans are the only creatures that farm other creatures
https://antark.net/ant-facts/ants-farm-other-creatures/
There's probably some kind of ants on lots of other planets spread around the universe too, unlike us. But cute story, though.
Ooh, don't anybody tell Killer C or all the other 'Live and let 'em die' reptiles:
ReplyDelete'Dodged a bullet': Melbourne lockdown may have prevented more deadly Covid-19 variant
"A variant of Covid-19 similar to the one that spread rampantly in the UK would likely have developed in Victoria during last year’s second wave had Melbourne not gone into an extended lockdown, a leading virologist says."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/dodged-a-bullet-melbourne-lockdown-may-have-prevented-more-deadly-covid-19-variant
But hey, that's only a virologist; can't believe a word they say.
This one's worth a read, too:
DeleteChristmas Covid outbreaks a result of putting economy ahead of health, AMA says
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/28/christmas-covid-outbreaks-a-result-of-putting-economy-ahead-of-health-ama-says