After yesterday's tedious reptile guff, what a blessing to be able to report a miracle this day, a fresh breath of stale air, as the bromancer delivers the goods ...
The pond frequently has a hankering for the good old days, when on a Sunday the pond would spend quality time with frock-loving Pellists and angry Sydney Anglicans in search of a complimentary woman to do their bidding (get thee to a kitchen woman and make your man a meal and a drink) ... and lo, the bromancer heard the pond's lamentations, and took pity ...
Now at the get go, the pond should note that the bromancer has an ulterior motive - he has a book to sell - and that header is just a shameless bit of provocative trolling designed to get feminists excited, because who could imagine a more feminist institution than the Catholic church, and who could think there was anything more feminist than a standard bout of Mariolatry, which might also be termed Mariology for those who want to avoid the charge of idolatry ...
Actually the sticking point for the pond is that blather about a virgin birth. The pond usually rabbits on about transubstantiation, and the cheerful way that Catholics literally devour human flesh and drink human blood on a Sunday (or any other day when it's on the menu) - and yes when the pond says literal, it literally means literal for those that truly understand the miracle - but that means the virgin birth never gets a fair shake of the punctured mystical condom ...
And so on here, and there's even more fun to be had here, with some of those examples typical of the lengthy text ...
That's just a few for starters, but the pond was mortified, because in all the fuss, it quite lost sight of the bromancer, who did, after all, set the whole thing in motion ...
Consider the sublime nonsense involved in all this blather about archangels and angels and such like, and yet there was a time when the pond was itself caught up in all this nonsense ...
That catechism the pond took a few pages from awhile ago, in full here, had a swag of prayers devoted to Mariolatry ...
The pond couldn't count the number of times it was required to say those lines, the pond being somewhat of a sinner and a wilful child, and in any case, you had to lie to the priest just to whip up a decent range of modest sins so that the punishment would stop with a dozen Hail Marys ...
But that's just the start of it, with a prayer in the morning and a prayer here and a prayer there and a prayer elsewhere, and always with the Mary, as if there was something about Mary, and no, it isn't that whiff of semen caught in the hair...
Etc., as we used to say about being fucked by a spectral phantasm ... but back to the bromancer Marying away ...
A tip to men. If your wife starts spinning a tale about being fucked by an angel, likely as not, you should check out the angel status of the men in her vicinity ...
It might well be that she's confused an angelic fuck with being fucked by an angel (hint, you might not have been up to doing decently angelic fucks of late).
What astonishes the pond most - there is much to astonish - is that the bromancer is presented by the reptiles of Oz, the alleged leading broadsheet treekilling newspaper of the land, as an expert in foreign affairs, and pretty much anything else going down these days ... and yet here he is, off with the angels and the pixies, and showing a remarkable propensity to believe in imaginary friends of the Santa Claus kind, in a way completely detached from reality ...
The pond shouldn't be surprised. This is what happens when you grow up being made to recite by rote a book full of nonsense ...
Is this deeply weird shit, or what? And the pond says this knowing that one of the pond's grandmothers went by the name of Mary, as frequently happened in the old days ...
Well that's the book flogging out of the way, and a splendid time was had by all, but the pond knew that the good lord had descended to the earth and lifted the pond up in a rapture ...
... because lo, see what Polonius prattles on about this day ...
Shocking, because it goes without saying that militant atheists are at one with fundamentalists of the Taliban kind ... they just love it when a Taliban type lops off their head for heretical thinking ...
Of course what Polonius can't admit is that census numbers count for something, especially if you're running a Ponzi scheme and want money from the federal government for schools, charities and other ways of offloading expenses ... in much the same way that Islamics, once they tumbled to the tyke model, now do a fine line in raiding the government purse ...
Indeed, indeed, and it seems, tragic though it is, that there's no mention of the Sikhs, though the Sikhs have been around a long time in country ...
By golly that wiki has a fine snap of Podgy ...
But why this anti-Sikh stance? Waiter, the numbers if you please ...
According to the 2016 estimate, religious distribution is as follows: Protestant 23.1% (Anglican 13.3%, Uniting Church 3.7%, Presbyterian and Reformed 2.3%, Baptist 1.5%, Pentecostal 1.1%, Lutheran .7%, other Protestant .5%), Roman Catholic 22.6%, other Christian 4.2%, Muslim 2.6%, Buddhist 2.4%, Orthodox 2.3% (Eastern Orthodox 2.1%, Oriental Orthodox .2%), Hindu 1.9%, other 1.3%, none 30.1%, unspecified 9.6%. In 2016, 30.1% of Australians stated "no religion" and a further 9.6% chose not to answer the question. Other faiths include Sikhs (0.5%) and Jews (0.4%).
Dammit, more Sikhs than Jews, and still they give the Sikhs a hard time. You can understand the small number of Jews seeing them left off, but what about the Sikhs? They cracked .5%!
No doubt Polonius has an explanation perhaps not related to that old reliable of pounding the anti-semitic drum, without the first clue as to who gets included in the word "semite" ... but do go on ...
The pond notes with admiration the dexterous way that Polonius worked the ABC into the conversation.
It seems if you've even walked past the building in Ultimo, you might be tagged as a one-time ABC identity, in which case, we might consider that Polonius himself is a one-time ABC identity, not least for his classic comical two hander routine with David Marr ...
Ah Laurel and Hardy, the two Stooges, Abbott and Costello ... oh wait, not the politicians ... because you see the real gripe is that Polonius thinks it's all about the tykes being under attack ...
Well yes, of course they're hypocrites, but even worse they're lining their kids up to endure all sorts of malarkey of the kind Polonius swallowed whole ...
Yes, there's nothing like Adam and Eve to prepare your child for the modern world ...
As for that talk about true man, what about true woman?
Forget it Jake, it's patriarchy town ... where you might get an allegedly chaste Pope berating people as selfish for not having children to keep the Ponzi scheme going ... and the something about Mary is that she's a bloody virgin, meaning women have to hang about waiting to get fucked by an angel ...
Well, it's been fun, but all good things must end, but not before Polonius gets to sounding truly pitiful and desperate ...
Muggers? The pond hasn't thought of that complacent, self-regarding, self-satisfied humbug old prune in a long time, but then it's been a long time since he was around, selling his delusional Tory patter and fuckwitted jokes about the Rationalist Society which don't really cut it any more ... because you don't have to believe in an imaginary friend to want to make a difference ...
Yes, complete independence from religious powers.
Perhaps the Sydney Institute could make a generous donation each time Polonius invokes the name of St Muggers or carries on about the martyring of tykes...
And so to the bonus for the day, and the pond only does this because it feels like being a dobber ...
Say what? The Angelic one is doing economics and even worse, she's taking on petulant Peta?!
Well Dame Groan will hear about this ...
Look at those ominous, dark, shadowy figures threatening the Aussie flag ... oh what a fine graphics department the reptiles have these days ... and look at that talk of migrants killing Australia. What do you have to say for yourself, Angelic one, explain yourself uppity missie ...
Fertility? Why are tykes always threatened by a drop-off in numbers offering a threat to the Ponzi scheme?
And preferably from Catholic countries, because the Catholic church is in a shocking state of late?
Never mind, the pond doesn't mean to be groaning away in the Groanian fashion, please just finish up this heresy as quickly as possible before petulant Peta and the Groaner get a whiff of it ...
Phew, that's enough heresy for the day, but the pond is mightily pleased. What a distraction from the virus, what a change of pace, what a chance to get back to the good old days of the Sunday meditation, thanks to Mary, the fornicating Holy Ghost, the bromancer, Polonius in dire fear of secularists, and the heretical Angelic one ...
Why it's better than the Placebo Plus that the pond flogged for years as an all-in-one superior health cure for everything ...
And what do you know, now the pond's favourite medicine is available at the Saturday Paper here ...
"what a blessing to be able to report a miracle this day"
ReplyDeleteI don't know about a miracle exactly, but an interesting comment on the passing of Catallaxy:
https://johnquiggin.com/2021/08/05/lonesome-george/
And a definitive assessment from Wikipedia:
"Whereas the word economy suggests that people in a community possess a common and congruent set of values and goals, catallaxy suggests that the emergent properties of a market (prices, division of labor, growth, etc.) are the outgrowths of the diverse and disparate goals of the individuals in a community."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catallaxy#:~
So now that Catallaxy has gone, should we adopt catallaxy ?
GB - For me, the term ‘catallaxy’, whatever its historic origins, is soiled by those years of the ‘Catallaxy Files’. However noble the ambitions of those who set it up -apparently to promote the thoughts of von Mises, Hayek and Mrs O’Connor - too soon it became a place for the obviously disaffected inhabitants of Girtby to snarl at the rest of the country in which they lived and, interchangeably, to snarl at others who wrote in, but did not follow the apparently agreed form and target of snarling for that week.
DeleteFor me, its only useful function was that its contributors did keep up a steady flow of links to websites from the Land of the Free - sites with words like ‘Freedom’, ‘Patriot’ ‘Amendment’ in their titles - so that what that contributor put forward would be bolstered by a citation from the loopy blogworld of self-styled libertarians, who took their hands off their guns just long enough to type a call to others to join them in battling all those secretive agencies that were messing with their precious bodily fluids.
A quick scan, about once a week, could alert one to any new, or particularly nutty, sites - or hints of emerging conspiracies. Doing it that way certainly lowered the prospect of having unsolicited e-mails appear in the following week, or having one’s viewing on ‘YouTube’ overrun with suggestions for ‘Fox’, ‘NewsMax’ or, heaven help us, Kenneth Copeland, if one were unwise enough to (use one’s favourite search engine) to find sites with those words in their title.
A few who did contribute to the Files, seem to have moved to ‘Quad Rant’, but its regular contributions from senior Catholic clergy probably make it unappealing to the full-moon nutjobs. ’Spectator’ might have attracted some - like flypaper - but it learned a hard lesson when it accepted contributions from the Cater.
We might be concerned that, if there is no longer ‘Catallaxy Files’ to keep many of these characters (of whatever species) in the back rooms of their, or their mum’s, houses, they might be more inclined to roam the streets, but being strongly anti-vax, that just might reduce their numbers, permanently, in the short term.
So many 'mini worlds' out there that I basically wot not of, never having been a fan, or even an occasional scanner, of Catallaxy Files or of Quad Rant or Spectator or ... I did follow Larvatus Prodeo for a while until it closed down permanently in 2013. Not too sure who "Mrs O'Connor" is though.
DeletePity about the term 'catallaxy' in a way though since the Greek origin of 'economics' always had association with household finances rather than the broader spectrum that 'economics' has come to mean. Except, that is, for those for whom a national 'economy' is still seen to function at about the level of a domestic purse so that "huge government debts will have to be paid off by later generations".
GB - I hope it is not being too precious - but Mrs O’Connor was born Alisa Rosenbaum in old Russia. She visited the USA when she was just 21, and was greatly impressed by it. She managed to linger there, getting bit parts in early movies, where she met another young actor, Frank O’Connor, who she married in 1929. This also improved her prospects of becoming a US citizen, which she did in 1931. Thereafter, she was Mrs O’Connor.
DeleteShe did write assorted works, eventually taking the pen name Ayn Rand, but her legal name was Mrs Alice O’Connor - the name under which she took up social security, and, eventually Medicare, when that wonderful capitalism, about which she wrote in truly glowing terms, did not provide for her needs in later years.
No, not being too precious at all, Her Randship is one I did read in my misbegotten youth: I even read Atlas Shrugged in a single sitting (spread over three elapsed days). And The Fountainhead similarly - oh how youth is wasted on the young. But We The Living (considering that my partner is the daughter of Russian 'escapees') was actually readable and almost human.
DeleteBut now that you remind me, yes, "Mrs O'Connor" it was indeed. I never really got into The Objectivist much or her adventures with Nathaniel Branden, though.
So the Bromancer expounds: "Mary deserves to be defined by her own words: 'My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my saviour'."
ReplyDeleteYeah, must be a lot of unsold books for the Bromancer to push as desperately as this. But I'm puzzled by the bit about "My soul magnifies the Lord": how can you "magnify something that already is now, and always has been, the size of the universe ?
So sayeth Polonius: "This suggests Minchin believes that his fellow Australians are so stupid as to be unable to answer a simple question without his sometimes inarticulate advice."
ReplyDeleteAnd indeed why not, Prattling Polly, for you seem to think they cannot make up their own mind about Minchin's advice without your garrulous meanderings. And unlike the Bro, you don't even have a book to flog.
Ah, Bible Stories:
ReplyDeletePharaoh had a daughter with a most bewitching smile,
She found the infant Moses in the rushes by the Nile,
She took him home to dear papa, and he believed the tale,
Which is just about as probable as Jonah and the whale.
see https://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1960s/1961_south_australian_ski_club_song_book_%28mimeo%29/index.htm (A South Australian Ski Club? Who knew?)
Proof that Polonius doesn't read what he writes: "You can believe in a faith without expecting that a divinity will intervene in the world." So, definitely no Rapture, no Second Coming.
And no creation either, Joe. Gotta intervene in "the World" in order to make it in the first place.
DeleteBut you gotta wonder, with all them different and mutually incoherent deities (including Sargon - who knew ?) how only one mostly coherent world got created in the first place. But then you've just gotta notice how many different creatures all live by more or less killing and ingesting other creatures - including now the most successful killer-eater, Homo Saps Saps - to see that's just how it would have to be.
The gall of Polonius, he can blather away about the Religious Status of people being included in the Census, but apparently no one who supports truth telling in answering the religious affiliation question can not.
ReplyDeletecondescendingly telling Nick Minchin, to leave the debate to others. He sneers at a couple of Atheists, then loses the plot completely, frothing on about Florence Nightingale, Malcolm Muggeridge and some Lord Hoo Haa who spoke at his Sydney (Bring your own folding chair and umbrella) Institute.
I am sure Murdoch does not read the Polonial Diatribe column, because if he did, he would realise the merciful thing would be the immediate retirement of Polonius.
You gotta understand reptiles, soth: even when being blatantly self-contradictory everything they say is completely and unarguably true in every respect.
DeletePolonius is making no attempt to do anything apart from ad hominem attacks on anyone he doesn't like. Minchen and Spencer both have valid points about the tenuous links between actual beliefs and the sort of vague tribal affiliations that lead a lot of people to tick the box.
DeleteA couple of censuses back a lady I worked with (remember work?) was telling all and sundry to record a Christian sect so the Moslems wouldn't "win". Definitely not a religious person and hadn't thought through the real implications.
"hadn't" or "couldn't", Bef ?
DeleteNot in the habit of thinking things through.
DeleteLots of people like that in the world, Bef, and I'm never too sure it's because they won't or because they can't - ie somewhat too short on knowledge and reasoning capability to actually do the job.
DeleteOr perhaps because their reasoning capability is too focussed and constrained - ie, they can reason well enough to graduate from school and university but somehow there's a 'phase shift' or something that stops them actually applying reasoning in other contexts. Sort of a minor version of how people can be outstanding scientists yet still stick to very primitive, even childish, religious beliefs.