Talk about poking a stick at a nest of reptiles!
Ants got nothing on this Surry Hills nest.
The reptiles were in an uproar this day. Just look at the ruckus in the commentary section, and elsewhere on the front digital page, Dame Slap and nattering "Ned" were on the prowl.
Down below, good old Shanners decided the best course was deflection and distraction, by having a go at Albo ... and there was Gemma, shouldering the blame by blaming 'leets of all stripes and sexes. And the oscillating fan was on the "quotas" bandwagon. And look, there's the dog botherer purporting to be a feminist ...
The pond was overwhelmed for choice, and yet there seemed to be one clear winner for a truly weird response to the crisis gripping the reptiles ... the bromancer!
Yes, in the course of the pond's weekend meditative reading, other reptiles will turn up to have their say, but the bromancer was truly in a weird and fruity mood, almost as if he'd seen a vision of Mary, or perhaps Christ in a toasted cheese sandwich, and so he had the honour of leading off the pond's parade ...
What the fuck? How did a photo of Harvey get into the discourse, at a time when the crisis is down under and the cries are coming from inside the house?
Never mind, just that header and the snap fortified the pond in its choice, and it only got better from there ...
The pond understands of course. It grew up in a male patriarchal culture dominated by the local Catholic priests, the most handsome of whom, after cutting a swathe through assorted married women, was forced to move on to another parish ...
So after the routine cries about Twitter and the fond memories of the 1950s and the DLP and the great split, and the battle against vile, despicable atheists and pagans (and never mind the reptile celebrating of the wonders of western civilisation produced by pagan Romans and Greeks), the pond was ready for what was to follow - roughly equivalent of the Catholics that stole all the Roman marble to build their temple to an imaginary friend ...
Dickson is a wondrous loon who long ago featured on these pages, but stay, it gets better, because if anyone wanted a good example of misogyny at work, would they look past the biblical Paul?
Indeed, indeed.. Has there ever been a more cogent explanation of why the Catholic church has freely embraced women, and made them priests and Popes, and put them in positions of real power, as opposed to mere teachers designed to slap around hapless victims like the pond on a hot summer's day as they sweltered in full penguin regalia?
The pond could, of course, spend its time trawling through the bible, but it's already been done, and the pond recommends the Skeptic's Annotated Bible's assembly of quotes on women, here ... and sure enough, right from the get go, that imaginary friend offers a ripper deal ...
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
At this point, your average Catholic deflector and dissembler turns to the new testament, and never mind Pauline rampant misogyny - better to marry than to burn - sure enough, the bromancer follows the tradition ...
Sweet long absent lord, could it get any fruitier, or weirder? Yes, wait for the final flourish ...
John Paul II is the greatest of the modern Popes?! That's the best the bromancer has to offer?
Now the pond realises that the bromancer should have been the lead in the Sunday meditation, and for that matter the pond should have eaten fish on Friday, and made sure it had enough ash on hand for facial desecration, but surely this is the richest response the reptiles could have offered. It will surely help the evangelical clap happy speaking in tongues SloMo, as the twin strands of modern thought meet, and the evangelicals consign the whore of Babylon to everlasting damnation and eternal hellfire for the Catholic church's many and varied vile heresies ...
But now for more sombre duties. The pond noted that nattering "Ned" was at the top of the digital page early on the weekend - because when it comes to a crisis, you must send out an old white male to handle the matter - and duty must be done, and the Everest of "Ned" climbed, so that all might think themselves more manly men for having made it through the read ... (women, you are not needed here, this is reptile men's business, where men explain the situation, and women are a little too soft-headed to understand).
Yes, Dame Slap was also to hand, but she was down the digital page, as is right and fitting for complimentary women, and so "Ned" sorted out the gender agenda crisis for everyone ...
The irony of course is that "Ned" insists on treating it as a political matter, and therefore with political solutions ... and yet at the same time, "Ned" finds himself in the same pickle as SloMo ...
Oh indeed, indeed, the hypocrisy of the media is monumental. That's why they made the befuddled SloMo lie for weeks on end ... it's all their fault that he's a shallow, vain man, with a perpetual, infuriating smirk and simple cries of the 'how good is that?' kind ...
Never mind, on we go, because we're barely at the base camp of "Ned's" whining ...
Indeed, indeed. Is it wrong to remind the reptiles of this classic howler, inflicted on the hapless Flint only yesterday?
No sisterhood? Why not then turn to the manly men led by SloMo or perhaps the manly reptiles led by the likes of the bromancer, and get thee to a nunnery, sister ...
Oh wait, it's all the fault of the ABC, but who knew that Tracy Grimshaw was just an ABC stooge?
SloMo must summon new emotional resources? Well the pond is here to help, so it's summoned an infallible Pope ...
And so to the bonus of the day, because even after nattering "Ned", and the bromancer, the pond insists on a cleansing sorbet, perhaps even a chance to change the general ambience, tone and subject matter for a moment ...
Come on down Riddster, independent scientist, suddenly now an expert in tertiary education ...
Well there's not going to be much science here, and the real meaning of the header is painfully transparent ... in many respects, unis will smother the freedom of the Riddster to be a maverick, but at least now he's an expert in tertiary education, and always to hand in reptile pages, we can expect many wonderful insights ...
The Riddster chooses DDT and climate science denialism as the hills on which to make his stand? You see, the pond guarantees high comedy, and the Riddster delivers, and best of all, he keeps his comedy stylings short ... though the pond would have loved to have heard his argument in favour of Agent Orange, and the way it improved the lives of the Vietnamese and the soldiers who helped defoliate and pollute the country (ah, the joys of herbicides).
Yes, yes, suitable penalties ... it's the appropriate cancel culture way. Defunding, persecution, penalties, perhaps even torture ... that'll larn 'em some decent, dinkum respect ... but how kind of the reptiles go give this independent scientist an odd job or two while waiting on his appeal ...
And so to finish off with a Rowe which happily combines science and art ...
It was jolly decent of Rowe to give SloMo Sharkie togs, with more discreet Rowe here, because the original was a little bit more upfront, a little more heavy hung, offering the sort of offensive pornography that has blighted western civilisation and made the bromancer think about plucking out his eyes ...
This is some kind of a Saturday we've got here: is there a contest on amongst the reptiles to see who's gone furthest round the bend and over the hill ? If so, surely the Bromancer and Nullius Ned are off and running.
ReplyDeleteDorothy, you did point me towards the Bromancer as a source of entertainment. I had a little trouble with the early parts of his dissertation, because I have managed to have no acquaintance with any aspect of ‘Game Of Thrones’. He did mention - with the standard assurances that his nominee was of the greatest eminence - one John Dickson. Wondering how I had not heard of the ‘presenter of Australia’s No 1 religious podcast’ before today, I sought more information on this Dickson.
DeleteSeems many of his publications are with ‘Matthias Media’. Track ‘Matthias Media’ - founder Phillip Jensen - of the Sydney Jensens. But Dickson is also ‘in’ with Hillsong. What a pliable little theologian he must be. I was pleased to see that the ‘Wiki’ entry for “Matthias Media’ mentions that it publishes ‘tracts’. Delightfully old-fashioned term - tracts.
Yet, for all that - I was not tempted to open an account with Matthias Media. For sheer entertainment, the Bromancer was upstaged by the Ridd.
Yep - if the real world has not been co-operative to the point you are trying to make about processes within universities - and make it Sydney, because, well, James Cook is way up there in Queensland, and not greatly endowed with sandstone. Anyway, if the real world will not fall into place - write some hypotheticals. And, look - if you work your hypothetical properly, you can add reference to Cambridge - talk about eminence!
Which is supposed to lead us all to a conclusion that Sydney University seems not to understand what being a university is all about. Mmm - perhaps the Ridd needs to work on his hypotheticals. Or the Flagship needs to find someone who can write about what is actually happening in universities.
Someone who can produce some evidence and facts you mean Chad ? No, I don't think the reptiles will ever fall for that one. Not enough attention grabbing entertainment.
DeleteI do wonder though, from time to time, just how many of the rubes actually read the Melbourne Herald-Sun - apart from the big backend section on sport and gambling, that is.
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ReplyDelete"The problem with sexual assault lies with men."
ReplyDeletePoor Bromancer is still not up to speed. Everyone else except the Prime Minister has expanded their concern to not only the alleged matters, but the alleged cover up. ScottyfM and Greggles are still struggling to first base.
Still with the DDT ban shibboleth ? The Riddster pining for the goat herding days of yore with the Bromancer perhaps.
ReplyDeleteThe Righteous Riddster gives us: "Or a scientist who stated that the banning of DDT by medical authorities had been responsible for the avoidable deaths by malaria of millions of Children ? Would the VC think that was disrespectful ?"
DeleteWell I dunno about the VC, but I'd think it was just another ignorant reptile untruth - I'd call it an outright lie but I'm sure that Ridd believes every syllable of it. And DDT has indeed been banned in Australia since 1987 - perhaps Ridd thinks that Australia is the world ?
Try this:
WHO gives indoor use of DDT a clean bill of health for controlling malaria
"WHO promotes indoor spraying with insecticides as one of three main interventions to fight malaria"
https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/
Yes, that's back in 2006 but it's still relevant.
And this:
The ban of DDT did not cause millions to die from malaria
"DDT is banned internationally for use in agriculture, but its use in malaria control remains permitted under the regulations of the Stockholm Convention. The production of DDT and its use in malaria control have never been discontinued."
https://sciborg.uwaterloo.ca/~mpalmer/stuff/DDT-myth.pdf
Yes, I'd call the Riddster profoundly disrespectful, wouldn't you ?
Ok Bromancer leads off with: "The last time humanity tried living out a pagan culture it was pretty ugly."
ReplyDeleteQue ? What "pagan culture" - where and when and who ? Are we expected to show priestly skill and read his mind ? Besides, isn't Communist China an ongoing pagan culture ? Or does the Bro count communism as a full-blown religion ?
Anyway, he continues: "Relations between the sexes were terrible. The chief victims were women and children."
Well now, considering child victims, how about this one:
"Press Release – Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand
The Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand has made a formal apology to victims and survivors of abuse committed by priests and other Church figures.
Speaking on behalf of Church leaders, Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington and President of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, gave the apology in Auckland today during a hearing of the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care."
http://auckland.scoop.co.nz/2021/03/catholic-church-apologises-at-royal-commission-to-survivors-of-abuse/
Hmmm. Where was "God" while all this was going on ? Didn't "He" convey his disapproval to the priests ? Or didn't the "priests" bother to ask "Him" ? But of course, that was EnZed - couldn't, wouldn't happen in Australia. No, never, ever.
Enzed is just one of those 'pagan' places: settled by pagan Maoris initially, and then colonised by pagan Scots Protestants. And if your single immutable idea of "religion" is Catholic Christianity - and the Bro's idea is exactly that - then Aotearoa is just pagan through and through. But like DP I wonder if anybody will ever tell him that Greece (for all its ancient times) and Rome (for most of its ancient times) were both decidedly pagan and only became "religious" in their fading, dying times.
You have to have a seriously wobbly head to accept any of the Bro's premises about the role of religion in civil societies. Plenty of research indicates an inverse correlation between religiosity (church attendance, professed belief) and social outcomes. Basically the opposite of what he suggests.
DeleteIt's pretty obvious that religion offers some comfort in a disfunctional society, opiate of the masses and so on, however, there's some evidence that the first step towards a better society is actually ditching the almighty:
https://theconversation.com/religious-decline-was-the-key-to-economic-development-in-the-20th-century-100279
"We have known for decades that secular countries tend to be richer than religious ones. Finding out why involves unpicking a complex knot of cognitive and social factors – an imposing task. So my small research team thought we’d ask a more straightforward question: was it the secular chicken that came first, or the economic egg?
Our recent paper in Scientific Advances shows that, in the 20th century, secularisation occurred before economic development and not the other way around."