The theme this day is rehabilitation or reclamation or reconstruction or making good or whatever.
The pond has anxiously waited for weeks to draw attention to a piece in The New Yorker on the rehabilitation, the restoration, of the highly esteemed Nero …
Luckily it's outside the paywall at this moment, and spoiler alert, it ends this way ...
Poor sod. He only killed his mum, but who hasn't been provoked by their mum? Clearly he was just a naughty boy, a spoiled boy of the BoJo kind, and where's the harm in that?
Anyhoo, talk of Nero seemed right down our our hole in the historical bucket man's alley, and sure enough, our Henry, noble lad that he is, today strides through history in search of answers ...
Indeed, indeed, just as the orange one and QAnon and such like and poor sweet Nero have been done down by malicious gossips, it takes a Henry to find the truth ...
Now at this point, the pond can hear its old history teacher say, "this is all very impressive and you have wandered off down assorted halls of history to show off, but there's more to life than showing off ...you haven't addressed the question ... you must always have an introduction and a conclusion, and show the workings to arrive at the conclusion".
The ancient pedant would have noted that our Henry has simply asserted that things unravelled, and then without any further reference to the matter at hand, trotted off to bung on an ostentatious feather display of studious book larnin' ...a portentous display of remarkable irrelevances ...
And what do you know, there was even more to come ...
What the fuck has this got to do with QAnon or the Jews being responsible for the lack of water in the south west of the United States? Not to mention those space lasers ...
The pond is sure that talk of Robespierre is up there with the reclamation of Nero, but really, what about the actual matter to hand?
Indeed, indeed, it takes a singular ability to talk of conspiracy theories, without recognising the modern font for them ... the Donald, Faux Noise, the GOP, and sundry others aping their QAnon ways down under ...
Sadly our Henry's romp through history must be graded as a D+, and while some might think that a generous mark, an astonishing ability to avoid modern times should be nurtured in all Murdochians ...
And there you have it, our Henry joining in the parade of reptiles denouncing the ABC on a daily basis, yet apparently unaware that's what you do when you join the reptile conspiracy ...
No doubt a crackpot calling others crackpots seemed like an easy way to end the column, but the pond was left with the distinctly uncomfortable feeling that our Henry was himself a perfect fit as a loon pond topic ...
And so to another restoration, this one involving the Riddster.
Yes, yes, noble and heroic and all that, and never mind the recent vile talk of the reef being in trouble, we all know that's a Chinese government plot - speaking, as our Henry does, of conspiracy theories - but what of the actual verdict?
Tremendous information and a wonderful shot of a pristine reef, surely putting the lie to all this monstrous talk of the reef being in trouble ...
Look at all this nonsense you can find in the Graudian ...
Now maestro, drum roll please, and if you will, the verdict ...
Oh indeed, indeed muh lud, fine and worthy arguments, and not a single mention of the reef, because, after all that snap showed the reef in tip top exceptional shape, but at the risk of repetition, what of the verdict?
Ah fuck a duck, it will be several months before the decision is handed down, and meantime our Morgan has just been doing his Gina ordained IPA duty?
The pond apologises for its grievous error and quickly moves on to another rehabilitation, or perhaps restoration is more appropriate ...
A lot of the reptiles have chipped in - of course Gra Gra of the Swiss bank accounts and Gold Coast fun would think messy private lives are a big turn-on for voters - but the bouffant one has been the most diligent of all ...
How many days since the beetroot man did down his rival? And yet already the gamble has paid off ... in spades or whatever ...
Sheer undiluted optimism, worthy of an infallible Pope's inspirational hopes ...
Naturally the bouffant one kept his inspirational news short ... "authenticity" is the name of this rehabilitation and restoration game ...
Luckily because the bouffant one kept it short, it's possible to do a bigger study of his diligence. Here he was beavering away a few days ago, full of triumph...
This is tough work, but some reptile has to do it, and is there anyone more worthy of a koala stamp for diligence than the bouffant one?
Splendid stuff, catastrophe averted, rehabilitation achieved, and just time to savour a Wilcox cartoon ...
But no reptile should travel alone, and the pond was delighted to see that the oscillating fan was also hard at work celebrating the return of the reformed and rehabilitated Barners ...
Why just look at the first photo to feel a sublime surge of confidence ...
Tremendous snap ... though not by a reptile photographer, just another service from AAP ...
There are, in fact, any number of snaps and screen capped videos in the oscillating fan's effort. Clearly the reptiles recognised it was just an average day's turd polishing, and so it needed some help ... but it turned out that the reptiles thought it only a two minute read, so what the heck ..
What a splendid couple they make in that snap ... almost a classic ...
But on with the oscillating fan ... only two minutes of your time required ... and best of all, if you happen to be in NSW at the moment, you might need a little distraction...
Yes, we're not Victoria, and don't you forget it, or we might send some infectious sod your way to do some infecting ...
Now where was the pond? Ah, yes, off with the oscillating fan celebrating definite upsides, while having to neutralise yet another click-bait video ...
Phew, luckily the pond could stop that clickbait video, because the beetroot one looked like he was about to take a turn ...
Instead let's keep celebrating the oscillating one, whose next piece will likely celebrate the revival of Pauline Hanson ...
Indeed, indeed. So many positives, so much rehabilitation. Thank the long absent lord that the member for Manila might be persuaded to go around again ... and meantime, since this is a hagiography, the pond had to neuter another click bait video before carrying on ...
Yes, he's an asset of the first water. Never mind the water in the Murray Darling, come to think of it, never mind the planet being completely fucked, in the world of the oscillating fan, all that matters is blather about micro levels and assets and such like, and plenty of snaps as filler for the folderol ...
And so ends today's extended reptile effort in rehabilitation and restoration. Not of things like the reef or the planet, but of loons of the Barners and member for Manila kind ...
It's a tough job, but they never shy from their daily work, and they surely deserve this Rowe cartoon, with more deserving Rowe always here ...
HH: "Mao Zedong's conviction that even after the revolution, "the capitalist class" would constantly re-emerge..."
ReplyDeleteAnd Mao was absolutely right: currently 698 billionaires in China, second only to the 724 in the US. And way ahead of poor old Aus with only 44, three less even than Taiwan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_billionaires
"Arendt argues that totalitarianism was a "novel form of government," that "differs essentially from other forms of political oppression known to us such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship" in that it applied terror to subjugate mass populations rather than just political adversaries."
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism
Now that's interesting, because applying "terror to subjugate mass populations" is exactly what the Roman Catholic Church was doing throughout the Middle Ages (and before and after), wasn't it ? And the RCs were well and truly into anti-semitism and even a wee bit of imperialism along the way.
On conspiracy theories, remember when Creighton was pushing the idea that the "virus was engineered by the Chinese"? P Z Myers, and his commenters, at https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2021/06/24/nicholas-wade-is-the-andrew-wakefield-of-molecular-virology/ does a good demolition of that conspiracy. The comment (#7) about the situation in Missouri is amusing in a macabre sense.
ReplyDeleteJoe - on more serious note (my comments below are as much because it is a rainy day here) - thank you for that link.
DeleteBig, big field for the Darwin Awards this year but the US red states (Missouri leading the pack) are making a big collective bid.
DeleteMade me think about the Tucker Carlson defence - The "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.'"
"Should inform a viewer"? Clearly, it's safest to assume people are dumb as dogshit until they prove otherwise.
Disappointment. The Henry wasn’t even trying. Going back to Herodotus and Livy? A mere blink in time, and many of the writings of Herodotus are of suspect authority.
ReplyDeleteIf we are trying to establish a case that plotting and conspiracy has always been a human characteristic - at least go back to Cain and Abel. But, for those who look to the metaphysical - so much of what makes us human originated in the time before the great one amused itself by creating Adam and Eve. Go back before then, to the political manoeuvrings of God and Satan.
There is much scope there for the Henry to cite obscure sources, but in a way that will upset muslims, jews and xians. From the apocrypha, he could tender the Book of Jubilees. Sure, it was cast aside when the succession of bibles were being compiled. Inconveniently, slabs of it appear in the Dead Sea scrolls, which, in retrospect, casts doubt on the scholarship and judgement of the compilers of bibles, and the Henry does show an inclination to cast doubt on the scholarship of others, when it suits his argument.
The conspiracy? As the apocryphal source would have it, Yahweh and Mastema strike a deal, whereby Mastema has command of a group of fallen angels, and a commission to entice humans to sin, so they can be punished. This is not just a passing serpent in the garden - this is a commission for eternity.
It is up to creationists to show us where, in our DNA, sits the propensity to sin - it is another of those biochemical characteristics which the revealed word of God chose not to reveal anything to lowly humans. At the metaphysical level, it is for the theologians to explain how a wise and caring creator could stitch up the basis of such a deal even before it decided to sign off on human design, and parachute Adam into the garden. But, however you look at it - to the scholar as deeply read as the Henry, there is ample explanation there of the history of plot and conspiracy from before the very beginning. And a chance to associate the ABC directly with Satan.
Not sure that "the propensity to sin" can "sit in our DNA", Chad. Sin is a property of souls, not of bodies, and souls are manufactured by God, are they not ? But then repentance is the same as sin, I understand.
DeleteSo God plants in our souls the sin that requires the repentance that he also plants in our souls and then redeems the result. Hmmm. Well I suppose that if one is some kind of eternal omnipotent (and omniscient and immanent) being, one would need to do things like that, wouldn't one ?
After all, if one is truly omniscient and immanent, then one knows perfectly everything that has and will happen throughout eternity and therefore there is absolutely nothing to distinguish any moment of eternity from any other moment of eternity, and thus God is frozen into a single unchanging moment forever.
Whatta life eh ?
GB - as I mentioned to Joe - it has been a day of set-in rain, so the mind had more opportunity to wonder, and wander.
DeleteI am regularly amused by the confidence with which the religious explain the world that is, the existence that preceded it, and the condition which follows it - and in detail, including dialogue between God and Satan.
I suspect your second paragraph would get you a good hearing at any of the ‘Churches of Prosperity’ - provided you added that the eternal omnipotent also expects at least 10% of your gross take, delivered to the EOs chosen Vicar (in the original meaning of that word) to be used at the complete discretion of the vicar.
All hail the vicarius, then ?
DeleteWondrous just how much God's tax (aka 'tithe') can do for His vicars.
Great fun, Chadders and GB ...the pond only exists for the comments these days ...
Delete