The pond looked around the reptile wasteland this morning, and was bemused after the Easter resurrection. This was where the reptiles had landed after the choccie and hot x bun orgy?
The obituaries editor arriving to try to revive Strewth? Now there's a contradiction. Why not just let it stay dead?
Simplistic Simon suffering for SloMo on the reptile cross of polling? Pass.
Magnay wondering what happened to Boris? Tepid leadership now a disappointment? Why not prefer to write two stories, one headed reasons to vote for Boris and Brexit, another reasons to vote against Boris and Brexit, and see what you feel like doing in the morning? If Boris can do two stories and swing each way, surely the reptiles can do it ...
The notion of the bicycling Boris swinging in the breeze, as if on a Lord Mayor stunt, put the pond in a good mood. There was whimsy in the air, and so the pond would start the day with a seminal Seminara attempting not to sound too seminarian ...
Hang on, hang on, did somebody give that fuckwit a bottle of water so he could pass the time pounding on his keyboard, or perhaps have a drink while standing in line eight hours to vote?
These days the pond routinely thinks of Americans as fuckwits, and entirely clueless as to what constitutes seemly structuring of ways to vote, and surely Seminara knows how to reinforce the pond's thinking. Take climate science if you would ...
Sheesh, Dave, the pond actively and loudly despises you, and all the rest of the Murdochian American crew, in service to Moloch and mindless stupidity, but you certainly suited the pond when it came to starting off with a post-resurrection whimsy ...
And so to more news from the United States ...
Yes, Killer Creighton is now reporting from the land where the war on the virus has achieved stunning results. Nowhere else has there been such stunning indifference to life, and an extraordinary ability to produce dead bodies, with the possible exception of Brazil, and so Killer is in his comfortable killing fields home turf ...
Indeed, indeed, as well as bravely not wearing a mask, Killer's just the sort to stand in the way of a wayward loon armed with a motor car, who's hurling it at a barricade ...
What a bold and brave lad he is, and the pond was astonished to see him wipe a tear from his eye as he announces "deaths are sad", but surely killing in the killing fields is even better, and using fucked up statistics is even more satisfying ... (yes, the US has reached 555k, which as a number is almost as satisfying as 666) ...
Actually thanks for the offer, Killer, but the pond uses screen caps, so that video won't play, but the pond just wanted to keep it in there to show what two elderly white loons looked like ...
As for that pious talk of freedom, how about a cartoon instead?
And now back to Killer, still braying about freedom, and serving up a generous dose of paranoia ...
Good old Killer, still the same fatuous fuckwit, as if somehow the rout in Georgia might be blamed on the pandemic, rather than the GOP, the Guv, and the likes of Fox News, the WSJ, and loons of the Seminara kind ...
Finally to the search for a suitable bonus, and so the pond turned to the top of the digital page early this morning ...
The pond realises that Dame Groan has a big cult following, so it decided to overlook the reptile portrait of Steven Miles - a sure sign that he's a tall poppy being readied for future reptile demolition jobs - and give the Dame a go, even though talk of a housing bubble was going to be deadly dull ...
Maynard Keynes? And we're all dead in the long run? Now there's some consolation, and no doubt Killer would be enormously pleased at the insight, but the pond felt the need for an infallible Pope, and luckily he returned this day ...
Phew, that's better, a bit of cold ice to chill the pond before it gets over-heated ... wouldn't want to cause any concern in Mosman or Toorak with talk of development ...
By golly, it's good to live in reptile la la land, where a casual, lazy $90k might be tossed at the sprogs, but the pond seems to live in a different world where lots of things are in short supply or somehow not being rolled out ...
And so to the last Dame Groan gobbet, and be fair, the pond did provide advance warning that it was going to be tedious and dull ...
Thank the long absent lord that talk of public housing might be dismissed out of hand. It's one thing to mention Keynes, but quite another to go all socialist ... and at least we can relax, knowing that things will be even worse for the Kiwis, because, according to reptile lore, everything is worse in New Zealand. That'll larn 'em for having a socialist female leader ...
But on the upside, Dame Groan did provide spacing between cartoons, and so the pond can now celebrate the returning Rowe, with more relevant Rowe here ... because, lo, if there is a housing bubble, surely there'll be a messiah in the Canberra bubble rising from his bed of stone to fix the problem, just as he's fixed so many other things ...
Just right for the day after Easter Monday: two pre-adolescent cadaver fanbois and a sad old Groany worried about "housing bubbles". Oh well, I guess nobody has told her that a million or two 'Boomers' will die in the next 10 years or so, dumping lots of houses (eg mine, though actually I'm pre-Boomer) into either the grasping paws of their remaining offsprung or onto the housing market.
ReplyDeleteBut just thinking about those 'cannibal eaten resurrections' made me think about all that - like, if the resurrected don't eat or drink, then neither do they sweat or cough, sneeze or even breathe out, which 'begs the question' of whether Heaven has an atmosphere. Do angels need to breathe ? If any of them breathe, do they exhale carbon dioxide, and if so where does the replacement carbon come from ?
Besides, neither Aquinas nor Boyle knew about atoms: are the resurrected rebuilt from exactly the same atoms as composed their bodies when they died (that would really put a cat amongst the cannibals) ? Can the Trinity reverse atomic decay - not that humans are grossly radioactive but even relatively stable elements can have a slow decay rate.
So many questions, so few answers.
Hey GB, I think this is the guy to answer your questions. He’s an entertaining mixture of total conviction and wishful thinking. I wouldn’t bother visiting the site but here it is anyway.
Deletehttps://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/theology/what-will-heaven-be-like.html
I’ve cherry picked his most relevant answers for your edification. I especially like the statement “But of course this is pure speculation” and the remark about communism. Hope this helps in your quest for knowledge of the afterlife.
20. Will we eat in Heaven?
We will have bodies, so we will be able to eat, as Christ did after the resurrection. But I think we will not have to eat. The resurrection body will live off the soul and the soul off God. As we are now, our bodies are dependent on what is less than they are, subsidies from nature; and our souls are dependent on what is less than they are, our bodies (if our brains are damaged, we cannot think well). This situation of being hostage to our inferiors must be reversed. Perhaps the matter of which the resurrection body will be composed will not have separate atoms and molecules (and so will be indestructible). Perhaps our bodies will not have separate organs and systems, but the body as a whole, or the whole soul in the whole body, will perform all of its operations. But of course this is pure speculation.
24. Is Heaven in this universe?
No. If it were, you could get there by rocket ship. It is another dimension, not another world. Yet, in a sense, it is continuous with this world, somewhat as this one is continuous with the world of the womb. From the viewpoint of an unborn child, this world is distant and outside the womb; but from the viewpoint of a born person, the womb is in the world, and the unborn child is already in the world—the child just doesn't see this until after birth.
I suspect that from the viewpoint of Heaven we will truly say that Earth was part of Heaven, Heaven's womb. But you cannot get there by rocket, only by faith and death, just as the fetus cannot get into the world outside the womb except by birth.
28. Will there be privacy in Heaven?
I think not. No one will want to hold anything back, for no one will be ashamed or afraid of being misunderstood or unloved. Privacy is like clothes and like laws: necessary only because we are fallen. When sin is gone, all hiding will be gone.
Certainly there will be no private property, no "this is mine, not yours." Communism, like nudism and anarchism, dimly sees something heavenly, but by insisting on enacting it now, by human force, it turns the heavenly into the hellish, as when adult powers are given to infants.
But I think David Byrne's view is much more realistic.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZpZuIWu1tw
Love the way that Heaven is 'communist', but not the evil human version of communism, the good heavenly version instead. They just have absolutely no idea what an eternity of total nothing entails do they. So probably just as well you "can't get there by rocket". But given that it's just by "faith and death", then how many other heavenable creatures did God create - just us, they reckon ? A real big universe just for us, then.
DeleteBut yeah, the 'Talking Heads' are much closer to 'understanding' that there is nothing to understand:
There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.
Its hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, and so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
I do like the comment "It (heaven) is another dimension, not another world." Considering that mathematicians (or is it physicists?) tell us there are supposed to be 11 dimensions (or is it 13?) - I wonder which one heaven occupies?
DeleteI reckon it would be one of the very small ones, Kez (ie, the other 8 or 10) to make it very easy for God to be immanent. And apparently only about 108 billion human beings in total (including us) have lived since God clicked his spiritual fingers, so we'd all fit in nicely. But there could get to be quite a few of us eventually.
Deletehttps://www.worldatlas.com/feature/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth.html#
Chadwick wrote on April 5 -
ReplyDelete‘Other Anonymous’ morphed into ‘Chadwick’ on the suggestion of ‘Jersey Mike’.
Are you still out there, Jersey Mike?
Hi Chadwick,
I have been "lying doggo" in your parlance as I am on a steep learning curve here and to quote the esteemed Grandpa Munster,
"Schnooks rush in where wise men fear to tread."
While enjoying DP's wit and outlook I didn't want to chime in just to say "well done" in
lieu of an educated comment, lest I came off as some apple polishing New Boy in class.
I was gratified you took on the Chadwick monicker, enabling one to appreciate the person behind the post just as GruBleen,Befuddled and the rest are.
Glad you're still with us, JM.
DeleteI'm sure all your comments are appreciated at the Pond, no matter how brief JM.
DeleteHi JM, good to know you are still 'there'. As I said when I took the Chadwick monicker, I came to the Pond to make one very specific comment - but got more involved. Dorothy does seem at ease with the liberties we take with her blog, and, as you say, continues to deliver us of her wit and outlook. I agree also with Kez, that your comments are appreciated at (in?) the Pond. Very best to you - your country now has our 'Killer' to guide you in the proper way.
DeleteReally enjoy your contributions when you chime in. It's good to remember when we are generalising about yanks that we are talking about 330 million people which is kind of presumptuous.
DeleteAnd yeah - you can keep Killer and Miranda Devine.
How can anything be a liberty when dealing with a reptile view that takes in everything under the sun?
DeleteThe thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
It's all good clean fun, and yeah, they can keep Killer and Miranda the Devine, and the chairman himself and his brood ...
Hi Chadwick, GB, Kez,C, Befuddled, Thank you for your kind words. C, whomever brought "Killer" into the US should have been arrested for bringing in dope.
ReplyDeleteBefuddled,I don't take the remarks aimed at Yanks to heart as most all are richly earned. Besides, if we all pulled in the same direction the world would tip over.
As for Miranda, I have always regretted passing a remark here when I first joined.
DP had posted one of Miranda's old publicity shots highlighting her allure as it were.
I was in rutting swine mode and made a comment.
Fast forward to a few months ago and I happened on a Aussie nitwit talking utter crap
on WABC radio.
All I could think of was you lot and that the speaker was a prime example of one of DP's reptiles. Then they identified her,it was Miranda of course and all thoughts that DP and
her posse were overly severe with these swine vanished. I am curious though, is there any kind of agreed consensus as to what forces in Australian society produced a Miranda, Killer, Greg Sheridan and Chairman Rupert? If you think about it, these Oz elements have literally changed the world, both Boris and Game Show Donnie wouldn't have attained power without the malevolent "egg" that was hatched by these forces.
Could one of you recommend a good book on the subject?
The country started as a class-bound, convict-laden racist colony, suffused with British colonialism, and still hasn't managed to change that much. Every so often, someone comes along to point this out, as Donald Horne did in the 1960s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country, but nothing much changes, and suddenly SloMo is channeling the 1950s, and so rinse and repeat, and the satirical Edna Everage turns into Barry Humphries ...
DeleteIt's a good question though: is there any published work that can show the process of the development of "a Miranda, Killer, Greg Sheridan and Chairman Rupert". If there is, I'd be just as grateful for having it pointed out as JM would.
DeleteI sometimes think it's really the other way around: the world is full to overflowing with the Mirandas et al, and there's very few of us. Is there a work anywhere, anywhen that explains how we arise and stay arisen ?
But since you Ecclesiasted, DP, may I Omar ?
“And do you think that unto such as you
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew
God gave a secret, and denied it me?
Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!”
DP -Great minds think alike. GB once recommended The Lucky Country to me as well.
DeleteI scored a copy, lent it out before reading and never got it back so I am now even
more motivated to have it returned.
One should never ever lend books, Mark Twain said something once about a book filcher being the lowest form of life.
Jersey Mike - not to go Freudian, but much of Rupert and, later, Miranda, can be explained by their fathers. There is no good book on Keith Murdoch, but the wiki for 'Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch' is well written, and shows how a reporter could acquire power - which is all that Rupert has ever been about. Paul Barry wrote a good book on that - but it was published about 8 years ago, so has drifted out of time.
DeleteMiranda is the daughter of a journalist of the old school. I seldom agreed with what he wrote, but he wrote well, so provided a kind of genuine discussion on issues. It seems Miranda grew up observing that you can be paid well for writing - stuff, just as long as it is 'stuff' that the great proprietor wants. Identifying that kind of 'stuff' has been her only talent.
About the only 'explanation' for Sheridan, and his Bromance, and former Prime Minister of Australia, Abbott - is 'student politics'. Their thinking reflects the activities of one Bartholomew Santamaria - Catholic activist, and remarkably tedious person otherwise. I defy anyone to write an interesting biography of 'B A', as he was known (not affectionately) - Prattling Polonius has had a couple of attempts - again, the wiki has set out all ye need know. I agree with DP's suggestion of 'The Lucky Country' - never to be confused with the Cater's miserable 'Lucky Culture'.
You know, Chad, that the main difference I see between "us" and "them" is intelligence, information and application. We are not geniuses (I'm not, anyway) but we are blessed with a modicum of intelligence (roughly approximated by 'IQ'), that we seek a wide range of information, not just a closed and enclosed viewpoint, and we never stop applying our intelligence and seeking both to verify and increase what we think we know.
DeleteNow, I ask my question again: where does that come from ? I wasn't born with it - I was once a prize-winning Sunday school boy and later a "conservative" - it grew in me without conscious appreciation until it had taken over.
How about you ?
GB - I would have leaned more towards 'curiosity' as a difference. Tried to work with various people who were considered to be successful managers because they were seen as 'decisive'. They were decisive because they only ever saw one solution to whatever was before them (H L Mencken has an excellent quote) and they saw only one solution because they lacked curiosity about alternatives. They read little or nothing - one, in an unusual moment of candour told me that he didn't read books that might disagree with him, because that would make him uncomfortable. I still feel sorry for that person. He fitted the continuing 'managerialist' mould by changing jobs about every three years - go into new job, announce changes, manage as much by tantrum as by persuasion, then, when results were not coming through - answer the 'call' to another executive position. Familiar pattern.
DeleteAn early, if unlikely, influence on my own life came with the polio epidemic of 1952. Because of the restrictions on many medical procedures I was semi-invalid for much of that year (not from polio - another condition, normally treated quickly) All you could do at that time was - read. My home had a reasonable stock of books, and friends of my parents supplied others. I simply read - all day. That gave me a stock of 'intellectual capital' (didn't encounter that term until my more formal study of economics) that carried me along when I returned to school, and taught me to deal with any issue by reading around it.
I think 'curiousity' is implicit in my analysis, Chad, but it probably deserves to be explicit. In 1952 I was 9 in a house without any books at all - though I did have a radio, thankfully - until I discovered the Brighton library in my 10th year and also discovered that I could register and actually borrow books, and not only from the kids section.
DeleteOf course nowadays kids have the web, so I'd be surprised if libraries are as important or formative as back then.
Now here's a short but interesting read:
ReplyDeleteMost Americans Know Nothing About Politics. Nothing.
https://jabberwocking.com/most-americans-know-nothing-about-politics-nothing/
Most Australians are the same.