Okay, it's not the best Sunday meditation the pond has ever embarked on. The dog botherer doing a feeble imitation of Killer Creighton is pathetic in every way imaginable, and yet, might we not reflect on pathos and its true meaning?
We must leave ethos and logos aside, and make an appeal to emotion, raw and passionate ... perhaps an opening appeal to experience, as with a line like "it is a decade this week since I left politics after successfully assisted Lord Downer in the destruction of Iraq, and then assisted in the destruction of Malware via Utegate."
It's the personal touches of pathos that help sway an audience with an impassioned plea ...
"Peerless newspaper"? Doctor, is there a pail handy, the pond feels vaguely nauseous ... but isn't that news of the NY Times digital subs remarkable? 7.5m+, but alas and alack, the WSJ journal only managed 2.46m, behind WaPo with 3m. (Axios). As for the peerless newspaper, who knows, they never print the figures that might enable comparison with their peers ...
Sorry, where were we? Ah yes, hunting out the best medical advice ...
It is after all a pandemic which has fucked the United States, Europe, South America, North America, the UK, sundry well-known people and even the poor old codger who paced around his back yard to help out ...
News Corp itself made sure it put in place safe work practices, while allowing its dogs off the leash to preach misinformation, anti-mask phobia, useless drugs and so on ...
And yet somehow the mug punters preferred to live rather than follow the advice of fuckwits of the dog botherer kind. It's a complete mystery, at least to the dog botherer ...
And so, as the dog botherer's stupidity keeps unfurling like a Confederate flag in the Capitol, here comes a billy goat buttism of the first water.
"This is not to overlook Australia's success."
But of course that's what the dog botherer wants to do. He wants to do a Donald, do a Killer, open the borders, make hay while the sun shines, lather up a viral storm instead of being in the hands of bureaucrats and do gooders keen to keep people alive ...
And so on we go ...
Yes, be brave like the dog botherer and head off to the United States - remember, take no sensible precautions - and see a country riven by false information, stupid politics and beyond stupid responses, such that a pragmatic response to dying is the only proper solution.
What a tragedy we have failed to follow in the Donald's footsteps, because it certainly would have gone away by Easter, or in Boris's case, by Xmas ...
As for that wretch that declined a catch-up with the dog botherer on the basis that he might be a virus carrier, how dare they? How craven, how lacking in courage.
Okay he is a carrier, perhaps not just the virus that was expected ... more like the e. coli you might get from an unwashed lettuce or an unwashed mind, propagating saucy doubts and fears ...
Imagine if the dog botherer or Killer Creighton had had a chance to run things... what a complete mess the country would be in ...As for good old New South Wales ...
Oops, how did that slip in? This isn't climate science denialism week, this is dog botherer in Killer Creighton mode, yearning for a few infections, and knowing that the Australian population would welcome it, just to show how tough and resilient they are, willing to go about their business with no hint of fear ... perhaps a run in with the UK variant so we can achieve the peerless Blitz courage of the British.
How silly to want to avoid this manly display of courage, fancy wanting no infections, fancy not wanting to die. Stand up and salute, you pussies, if the dog botherer can fuck over Iraq, surely you can stand a little ravaging by a pandemic ...
But no, you mystify the dog botherer with your desire to go on living ...
And at last a little insight. The complacent one realises he's in a comfortable, incredulous minority. Perhaps something significant has changed in this country during the past decade?
Perhaps it's just that people don't care much for dying, or following the fuckwitted advice of hydroxy peddlers, who think the world has long forgotten their enormous stupidity ...
By golly the pond thinks it's earned an infallible Pope after enduring that tosh ...
And now, because the pond loves it when reptiles fight amongst each other, it's time for a little dose of Shanners ...
No, not that one, assiduously performing his lickspittle duties for the weekend ... this one ...
It turns out that this Shanners is pretty much everything the dog botherer fears and loathes ... though she really resents the treatment dished out to Xians, while sporty types flood the fields with their uncouth mayhem ...
Indeed, indeed, keep chivvying away at the inconsistencies and Comrade Dan, having lost the grand final, wanting at last to feed the masses with just a little panem et circenses, but what of that outrageous WA lockdown? Is this wretched Shanners into mollycoddling, and all that the dog botherer despises in his manly way?
"Better safe than sorry"??!! That's your answer to the dog botherer, who nobly pointed out that it's better to be sorry than safe?
And what's this talk of Sydney relatives missing out? Wash out your mouth, smug Canberran, nobody has done it better than Gladys. The dog botherer told the pond so! Hmm, is it time for my hydroxy tablet now? Or maybe just a steroid to kick Sunday along ...
Nope, it's time to wrap up proceedings with an infallible Pope, not exactly on topic, but when has that every worried the pond?
Wait, what's that tucked away in the corner? Why it's the dog botherer's motto ...
Just pop a coal tablet, along with the hydroxy and you and the planet won't be safe, but why be sorry?
Doggy Bov: "...burdened our children with incalculable debt..."
ReplyDeleteThere he goes yet again with that eternal nonsense and outright lie. But I suppose it goes with that other Doggy Bov delusion: "...media has avoided facts about mortality rates and comorbidities while exaggerating the crises in Europe and North America."
But then, yes, of course only vanisingly few from Europe and North America have actually died (nobody gives a rat's fart about 'long-haul' COVID, do they) and every single one of them had comorbidities (which includes advanced age) and none were kids and COVID was never transmitted in schools or by schoolkids.
Reminds me of something I read a long time ago of which my somewhat muddled recall is: "Using evidence and testimony not like a scientist to discover what is the case, but like a lawyer just to promote a case". And there's no doubt that Doggy Bov would make a fine Giuliani or Powell style lawyer.
The reptiles have a problem with success, they are much more comfortable with failure, mainly because their day job is to boost failing politicians and failing industries that need paid propaganda services. Things like the GFC response, Covid shutdowns and even the growth of renewable energy despite all their efforts are a bit of a slap in the face.
ReplyDeleteI came across this a while ago and you probably don't have to go past the headline to get the drift:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/29/us-uk-covid-sars-vietnam-senegal-ebola
What a startling idea, model your behavior on people who are successful, not those who fail all the time. The Dog Botherer, of course, is advocating the dead (literally) opposite.
Have you noticed how often diet advice is offered by the morbidly obese or relationship counselling by the thrice divorced? It may have just been my workplace but I suspect some textbook covers this.
Apart from the paid advocacy you also have the neoliberal kool-aid. Looking at pandemic management it's hard to find a role for individuals making their own assessment. You know, the ill-informed, the misguided and the straight-up fuckwits making on the spot decisions that could prove fatal for those around them.
Can't say I actually disagree, Bef, but I do sometimes think that those we should best model our behaviour on are those who do fail a few times but learn a lot and are ultimately successful. But anyway, the key piece is this: "One thing the leaders of all these countries have in common is that they know an outbreak can grow exponentially..."
DeleteYep, reptiles and wingnuts just do not grasp the existence of exponentiality. Not a single one - and especially not Kenny or Creighton - understands that this whole pandemic began with just one infected Chinese person in Wuhan. And that just one infected Melbourne or Perth or Brisbane person (it doesn't apply to NSW persons for obvious reasons) can begin the process all over again. These are people who simply can't learn from history, so they just go on and on endlessly repeating the same mistakes.
And why is that ? Well, consider: "Encouraged by their leaders, the US and UK chose instant gratification instead, and will now pay the price." Yep, reptiles always choose instant gratification, but do their best to ensure that it's us, and not them, who pay the price.
Kenny:"our own health can be protected by the state". Maybe.
ReplyDelete"Compared to 16 other nations, the U.S. ranked dead last in life expectancy for males and second-to-last for females. Beyond that, the nation ranked at or near the bottom in nine broad areas, including injuries and homicides, drug-related deaths, heart disease, and diabetes. Lung disease was both more common and more deadly in the U.S. than in most of the comparison countries, while older adults were more likely to have arthritis than people in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan. The U.S. surpassed all other nations in its rate of infant death. It had the highest rate of new AIDS cases. American young people were more likely than their international peers to die in traffic accidents." and why?
"research focusing on individual states, rather than the country as a whole, has found that states with more liberal policies have longer life expectancy rates than those with more conservative policies."
https://undark.org/2021/02/01/america-health-trails-other-wealthy-countries/
Yesterday Polonius was abusing the ABC for talking about Trump's "Downfall". He will not, I reckon, comment on Ch. 9's "The Trump Show: Downfall" (tonight, 8.10.)
Loved the orange sky, and charred trees, in the Pope cartoon.
It's American Exceptionalism, mate: Americans are exceptionally bad at everything.
DeleteBut exactly what so-called "liberal policies" made the difference, I wonder. Do the "liberal states" fund bigger and better Medicaid perhaps ? Did the study compare lifespan and life expectancy by level of economic success - ie are the wealthy in America in markedly better health with a longer life expectancy ?
"are the wealthy in America in markedly better health"? Yes, but not compared to other rich nations.
DeleteHere's a bit of a comparison:
Delete"The rate at which cases of Covid-19 have fallen since the start of the year is dramatically lower in the UK’s poorest regions than in wealthier areas, according to detailed analysis of government data."
Hmmm. How does the UK wealthy compare with the American wealthy ?
Anyway:
"Scientists fear that if some areas have much higher infection rates than others, Covid-19 would quickly spread to less affected areas if lockdown were to end, putting the country back to square one."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/06/fall-in-covid-cases-slower-in-poor-regions
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function” - Albert Bartlett. Slightly different context but the same problem.
DeleteOur inability to grasp mathematics in general, Bef, but yes, total blindness to any understanding of exponentials is a prime example. Especially given that many, if not most, people are exposed to a common example in terms of bank interest on a savings (eg term deposit) account.
DeleteYet another outstanding failure of our education system.