After a goodly dose of "teaching the controversy" climate science bullshit from the Major yesterday, how pleasing was it to catch up with the loonatic antics of Rowan Dean on Media Watch?
The pond only gets to hear about Sky after dark thanks to those who somehow score a subscription, and even bolder and braver, dare to watch it ... and so is always surprised to discover that such a thing as a Rowan Dean actually exists, and what's more scores screen time in Murdoch night owl la la land...
Also reassuring was the report on the brazen defiance of the Bolter, with the Mornington peninsula man indulging in one of his petulant, foot-stomping hissy fits ...
Of course they're not going to change their tunes, and the exclusion of the reptiles of the lizard Oz from the pathetic attempt at window dressing is up there with the Bolter calling it out ...
Once you've created a monster, expect it to keep on being monstrous ...
There was also much fun about the IPA data and the ABC, but that one has been done to death, and anyway it's only use for the pond will come when IPA chairman Dame Slap carries on in her usual way about the need for rigour ... or should that be rigor mortis?
Meanwhile, there's other low comedy elsewhere, with professional curmudgeon Andrew Neil resigning after barely beginning, replaced in loon affection by Nigel. Oh yes, they're making plans for Nigel ...
But enough with song references, and on with today's reptile offerings, and the pond has to report yet again it's extreme disappointment at the reptile stew.
Of all the pond favourites, only Killer Creighton was on view early in the morning ...
The notion that the Killer has learned anything about himself also gave the pond a good chortle ... the Killer has about as much capacity for introspection as the mango Mussolini ...
Surprisingly, this time Killer didn't have it all his own way. Oh there were the Killer loyalists, no doubt sharing his deeply Freudian fear of the mask and his abiding love of the killing fields, but there was also some pushback from the readership below the fold ...
The pond confesses it was a tad startled to see this kind of dissent, but thought it might seize the chance to slip in news of another anti-masker ...
Frankly there's no way that the Herman Cain awards can honour the many contenders, even those who head off to hospital for treatment, when all they needed to do was gulp down a goodly dose of horse medicine ...
But back to Killer ...
The inanity of that commentary - dragging in compulsory sterilisation, blathering on about proportion -was Killer at his mask-free finest, but still there was pushback ...
Well exquisite irony is not what the Killer does, at least consciously, and of course there was some pushback from Killer's devotees, but the pond was pleased to get the conversation over with ...
Sadly, Macquarie runs a subscription service, and must answer for its stupidity in its own way, but at least Merriam-Webster got a fair hearing at Snopes ...
Lo, behold the company that the Killer keeps when talking of dictionary definitions...
While Western Journal claimed the purported change took place “this week” — that is, the week of May 12 — several others referred to the change as “new” or as being in effect or having taken place “now” — that is, very recently.
For example, the English conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson wrote: “The full definition of ‘anti-vaxxer’ now states, ‘a person who opposes vaccination or laws that mandate vaccination.'” On Twitter, @Breaking911 wrote: “NEW: The Merriam-Webster dictionary has changed their definition of ‘anti-vaxxer’…”
On Facebook, several others claimed that Merriam-Webster had “just” updated or expanded their definition of “anti-vaxxer,” or otherwise referred to a recent change, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still others decried an update or change to the dictionary’s definition of the word, without explicitly stipulating that that change had taken place recently, though it would be perfectly reasonable for readers to presume as much. For example, English rapper and podcaster Zuby posted a widely-shared tweet which claimed that “The Merriam-Webster dictionary has changed their definition of ‘anti-vaxxer’ to include ‘people who oppose laws that mandate vaccination’. Welcome to 1984. This is The Ministry of Truth.”
Similar claims were made by the right-wing Young America’s Foundation, and in articles published by the Russian state-backed website RT.com, and the right-leaning website RedState.com.
In reality, Merriam-Webster’s definition of “anti-vaxxer” has remained unchanged since it was first introduced in 2018. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic played no role in the formulation of the dictionary’s definition of that word, and no expansion, update or alteration took place in 2021, or at any time. Thus, we are issuing a rating of “False.”
As of May 13, 2021, Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines “anti-vaxxer” as follows: “A person who opposes vaccination or laws that mandate vaccination.” The exact same definition was in place in April and January 2021, as well as in 2020,2019, and 2018.
Peter Sokolowski, editor at large of Merriam-Webster.com, confirmed for Snopes that the word was first added to the online dictionary in February 2018, and the wording of its definition has never been changed.
What a remarkably Freudian man Killer Creighton is, but the pond is grateful that the conversation turned to dictionaries rather than his deep and abiding fear of masks ...though the pond was reminded that masklophobia was a real word and a real condition, with its own wiki listing here ...
And so to the next loon, and how pleasing that the reptiles decided to create a space for rambling Campbell ... it was just a pity that he was doing a Killer impression ...
The rambling irrelevance, a failure at every level, but determined to keep failing upwards, was given a cruel serve by what's left of the lizard Oz graphics department ... but that blather about the flu was a sign of what was to follow ...
Why is the rambling irrelevance carrying on with this Killer impression?
Well the rambling irrelevance wants to become the next Lying hjelmsman for the Liberal Democrats, and that sort of inane libertarian carry-on is the sort of manure the rabid ratbags feed on ... cultivating hesitancy, fueling doubt and fear, and even getting off on horse cures ...
But it's getting harder for the fringe loons when the usual loon space is taken up by other loons ...
The pond appreciates the rambler's attempt at a distraction, but he really is a lightweight piece of fairy floss, and yes the pond realises it's defaming a decent showground offering if you want to rot your teeth the way the rambling irrelevance rots your mind ...
It would appear that rambling Campbell thinks he's coming to a Senate seat with the speed of a freight train with this sort of guest appearance in the lizard Oz, but all the pond could think of was children's birthday parties and the significance of Tootle ...
No doubt the rambler thinks of himself as the little Brisbane Mayor that could ...
But the world keeps turning, and people keep moving on, and was it only yesterday that jocular Joel was laughing his head off in the pond's banner?
Now he can have an immortal Rowe to pin above his desk, knowing he's done his very best for coal and for the fucking of the planet ... with more pinnable Rowe here ...
Interesting point about seat belts in C's response to the Killer. After all, the point of a seat belt is only to protect the wearer which is, more often than not, the sole occupant of the vehicle. It might even be claimed that wearing a seat belt is deleterious: it may generate complacency, or even over-confidence, in the driver.
ReplyDeleteBut then, if somebody is killed who, if wearing a seat belt would not have been, is there not 'costs' ? For instance to loving ones - ie that loved the driver, I don't say "loved ones" - even to, perhaps, depriving a family - wife/husband and kids - of a main family member and maybe even a sole provider.
And also, there's the society costs: dealing with all the consequences of death, including, but not limited to, the work by paramedics (trying to save the deceased), police investigating circumstances, hospital expenses for those who don't die on the spot, welfare payments to surviving family (especially in the case of a deceased sole provider). And so on.
All of which is considered sufficient reason for making a refusal to wear a seat belt an offense that is accepted by the public almost universally. So, what is the big deal with Covid vaccination ? And will it just fade away - as the resistance to seat belts did - in a decade or two ?
Sadly in a world where the mango Mussolini and assorted other names can accept a stipend for fronting a Moonie gig - making a boxing commentary grift seem classy - there's a new brand of remarkable loonacy let loose on the world where self-harm on instruction from or at the direction of others seems to be the new normal ...
Delete"Mango Mussolini" - what a great moniker, DP. Much better than 'TFG' (The Former Guy) used by many Americans who, like lots of us, can't quite bring ourselves to say or write his name.
DeleteYour updates on anti-vaxxer deaths from covid are very inspiring DP. In their honour I have concocted various pseudo-haiku (dare I say cryptic) epitaphs for these covidial corpses.
ReplyDeleteShock Jock whackster
Anti-vaxxer
Hit by Covid
Brain exploded
He was anti
Sang a shanty
Would not mask up
Now he’s toes up
Lived in Texas
Got infectious
Self-deleted
When self-treated
Ivermectin
Took this Texan
Vaccine loather
Decomposer
Sang at Hillsong
Was not there long
Caught the virus
Gone to Jesus
Vax rejecter
Now a spectre
Said please pray
Was DOA
Beery club boss
Gone but no loss
Called it bogus
Is now fungus
Masks were no fun
Would not wear one
In denial
Died while viral
Trumpist moron
Joined Q-A-non
Tried malpractice
Now he’s cactus
Delicious. Waiting for the first edition of 'The Collected Kez'.
DeleteCheers GB!
DeleteAnd a delighted farewell to Joel Fitzgibbon - from the Pond top left and from the Australian parliament. He can surely join Paul Keating, Mark Latham, Cory Bernadi, Campbell Newman and Meg Lees in the hall of self-and-party-destructive politicians of the last few decades.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to oblivion, Joel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWn0G9JdI44
Anybody thinking of emigrating to the USA:
ReplyDeleteHere is the state of America circa 2021
https://jabberwocking.com/here-is-the-state-of-america-circa-2021/
Where would it be best for an old fogey like me to settle in, JM ? I think I can bring my Aussie Age Pension with me.
Not sure how this fits with the trend (used to suck, still sucks) but healthcare is not a strong point
Deletehttps://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/09/10/the-uss-broken-healthcare-system-is-at-the-root-of-vaccine-hesitancy/
"Following neoliberal orthodoxy, control of the healthcare system has been privatized, even as public funding has increased. Government spending now accounts for two thirds of all medical expenditures, and (on a per capita basis) exceeds total health spending (public+private) in every other nation. [2] Most of the public funds flow to a private sector with little public oversight, rational planning, or fairness."
While you are there, this was also interesting
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/09/13/covid-19-and-the-new-merchants-of-doubt/
I don't know how many more times people will fall for this type of scam, could play out forever.
Ah yes, our old favourites Anders Tegnell of Sweden and Naomi Wolf of The Far Never-Never Land. Well we do have to concede that had humanity taken no action whatsoever to constrain Covid, it probably wouldn't have wiped us out entirely, but then neither would humanity have wiped it out. So, annual surges and unconstrained mutation like we've had before, maybe (black plague, small pox, influenza etc).
DeleteAnd, of course, a world-wide totally screwed economy. Except for in China, that is, where rigidly enforced lockdowns would have saved the vast majority of the population, and nearly all of the economy.
Don't forget New Zealand. Down to 17 new cases today!
DeleteNow come on, Bef, Aotearoa can't achieve zero Covid, all the experts - like Killer C - have repeatedly told us so. Just watch as it surges and wipes them out.
DeleteGB,
DeleteThere can be no other choice but Jersey for you to settle in. If anyone inquires about your accent, just tell them you are a Cherokee from Oklahoma. No one in NJ has ever met a OK native or traveled there, I kid you not.
And if you happen to let slip a "oi oi oi" just say you picked up some Yiddish.
The first bit of the US I ever heard about was, of course, Kansas: attending a movie house showing of The Wizard of Oz at age 4 1/2 - too young to appreciate the likes of Julie Garland or the dancing of Ray Bolger. But then, not too many years later I learned that "the wind comes sweepin' down the plain" (though many more years before experiencing the joy of being told that "It ain't necessarily so" and also hearing the voice of Robert McFerrin).
DeleteSo yeah, I could be an OKer from those windswept plains. And of course I picked up some Yiddish - everybody did from every last one of us being descendants of God's otherwise total wipeout flood.
So, all I gotta do now, is work out how to get a visa, and then manage to book on an as yet non-starter flight, transfer all of the remnants of my fortune to US$ (and that'll cost me a bit since the Au$ is only about US75c) and then I'll be there, JM. Thank you for all that useful advice.
But since I'm a free medical Medicarer in Oz, d'you reckon that I could be one in NJ too ?
I see that our ‘Killer’ has shown his usual deep thought, referring to ‘fear porn’ in his column.
ReplyDeleteThis phrase is quite meaningless, but is being used by similarly shallow-thinking writers who claim to share his calculus of risk. The phrase is meaningless because it pretends to derive from ‘pornography’ - writing or representation (‘graphos’) of or by prostitutes (‘porni’).
So - if this phrase means anything, it suggests fear of prostitutes. In context, one infers that our ‘Killer’ is referring to persons who encourage, or experience, sexual stimulation from fear. Dorothy has speculated that ‘Killer’s’ obsession with medical masks might derive from some emotional catastrophe earlier in his life. We can but speculate about other emotional scars, including any that might have induced fear of prostitutes.
If our ‘Killer’ is not trying to reveal more spasms from his emotional development, perhaps he has just taken ‘fear porn’ as a convenient filler, or signal to others that he is right up there with this week’s catch phrase.
What he could have done was to construct a phrase with genuine meaning, and which displayed his inherent scholarship. To the Greeks, ‘Phobos’ was the embodiment of ‘fear’ and (bonus) ‘panic’. What better derivation for what we think ‘Killer’ was trying - yet again - to say, about people stimulated by fear?
‘Phobography’ would have allowed him to claim credit for a neologism and, perhaps, glean some praise from Henry the Hole Man for using Greek mythology.
There might have been problems with the readers of the Flagship. Those to whom reading has not moved past ‘phonics’ would have trouble pronouncing the new word, while those who do not have to move their lips as they read, so can take in the odd ‘whole word’, could confuse it with, say, ‘photography’; in the same way that (still unidentified) citizens of Gwent, in Wales, confused ‘paediatrician’ with ‘paedophile’.
I see that our ‘Killer’ has shown his usual deep thought, referring to ‘fear porn’ in his column.
ReplyDeleteThis phrase is quite meaningless, but is being used by similarly shallow-thinking writers who claim to share his calculus of risk. The phrase is meaningless because it pretends to derive from ‘pornography’ - writing or representation (‘graphos’) of or by prostitutes (‘porni’).
So - if this phrase means anything, it suggests fear of prostitutes. In context, one infers that our ‘Killer’ is referring to persons who encourage, or experience, sexual stimulation from fear. Dorothy has speculated that ‘Killer’s’ obsession with medical masks might derive from some emotional catastrophe earlier in his life. We can but speculate about other emotional scars, including any that might have induced fear of prostitutes.
If our ‘Killer’ is not trying to reveal more spasms from his emotional development, perhaps he has just taken ‘fear porn’ as a convenient filler, or signal to others that he is right up there with this week’s catch phrase.
What he could have done was to construct a phrase with genuine meaning, and which displayed his inherent scholarship. To the Greeks, ‘Phobos’ was the embodiment of ‘fear’ and (bonus) ‘panic’. What better derivation for what we think ‘Killer’ was trying - yet again - to say, about people stimulated by fear?
‘Phobography’ would have allowed him to claim credit for a neologism and, perhaps, glean some praise from Henry the Hole Man for using Greek mythology.
There might have been problems with the readers of the Flagship. Those to whom reading has not moved past ‘phonics’ would have trouble pronouncing the new word, while those who do not have to move their lips as they read, so can take in the odd ‘whole word’, could confuse it with, say, ‘photography’; in the same way that (still unidentified) citizens of Gwent, in Wales, confused ‘paediatrician’ with ‘paedophile’.
Oh - GB - Gotta like someone who calls his cats 'Hilbert' and 'Hopper'- although one might speculate on relationship of Hilbert and that cat conjured up by Lewis Carroll.
I see that our ‘Killer’ has shown his usual deep thought, referring to ‘fear porn’ in his column.
ReplyDeleteThis phrase is quite meaningless, but is being used by similarly shallow-thinking writers who claim to share his calculus of risk. The phrase is meaningless because it pretends to derive from ‘pornography’ - writing or representation (‘graphos’) of or by prostitutes (‘porni’).
So - if this phrase means anything, it suggests fear of prostitutes. In context, one infers that our ‘Killer’ is referring to persons who encourage, or experience, sexual stimulation from fear. Dorothy has speculated that ‘Killer’s’ obsession with medical masks might derive from some emotional catastrophe earlier in his life. We can but speculate about other emotional scars, including any that might have induced fear of prostitutes.
If our ‘Killer’ is not trying to reveal more spasms from his emotional development, perhaps he has just taken ‘fear porn’ as a convenient filler, or signal to others that he is right up there with this week’s catch phrase.
What he could have done was to construct a phrase with genuine meaning, and which displayed his inherent scholarship. To the Greeks, ‘Phobos’ was the embodiment of ‘fear’ and (bonus) ‘panic’. What better derivation for what we think ‘Killer’ was trying - yet again - to say, about people stimulated by fear?
‘Phobography’ would have allowed him to claim credit for a neologism and, perhaps, glean some praise from Henry the Hole Man for using Greek mythology.
There might have been problems with the readers of the Flagship. Those to whom reading has not moved past ‘phonics’ would have trouble pronouncing the new word, while those who do not have to move their lips as they read, so can take in the odd ‘whole word’, could confuse it with, say, ‘photography’; in the same way that (still unidentified) citizens of Gwent, in Wales, confused ‘paediatrician’ with ‘paedophile’.
Oh - GB - Gotta like someone who calls his cats 'Hilbert' and 'Hopper'- although one might speculate on relationship of Hilbert and that cat conjured up by Lewis Carroll.
What on Terra happened to your long comment, Chad ? To which I tried to reply with the following:
ReplyDeleteAh yes, cats which leave their grins behind. Which indeed Hilbert did, having published his more comprehensive paper on relativity some days before Einstein published his.
Admiral Grace was, as we all know, one of the great ones of my once profession. But what on Terra would she have done without Ada Lovelace ?
Sorry GB, the spam trap went wild for no reason.
DeleteDorothy -thank you for explanation; so even 'spam traps' can go rogue, huh? That also saves me trying to explain to other readers/contributors that I was NOT trying to dominate this day's discussion by sheer repetition. That is more a reptile habit.
DeleteAww, c'mon Chad, every good post deserves repetition.
DeleteYes, Chadders, there's nothing like repetition, it's the reptile way, and the pond thought it fun to show just how the spam trap took a particular dislike to a post, showing that for all Google's boasting, blogging remains as hazardous now as it ever was ...
DeleteSure, we could let only one valiant attempt stand, but why not three assaults on the Killer? Come to think of it, why not a squillion?