Some days the pond is grateful it's on the early morning shift with the reptile crew.
Otherwise it would have had to pay attention to this loon, who flashed across the digital edition skies yesterday afternoon ...
Back in the day, this very same loon, having failed at his job, was railing at the mango Mussolini for the WSJ ... with an excerpt from a book that was published way too late to do anything, except perhaps line the pockets of the Bolton after he'd done his bolt ...
It was a long and useless wail, and the pond was reminded of petulant Peta, better at ranting on the sidelines than actually knowing what to do, or attempting to do something about it ... the only bit of luck the short time in a position of power to help with the fuck-ups ...
In the same vein, the pond didn't have to deal with this attempt at gallows humour ...
That Vanity Fair attempt to tackle the STFU story noted that no-one was telling Fox or Tucker to STFU ...
To compound the folly, there was this piece of pot and kettle competitive nonsense ...
Good work Jimbo, the pond had a laugh just from the splash ... but if the kettle must be reined in, then how about a bit of goose for the gander pot?
And then had another good giggle at the reptiles' love of a burgeoning bureaucracy ...
But why has the pond delayed, avoided and delayed this day's trek with the morning zoo?
Well the omens were bad from the get go... with the tree killer edition showing the reptiles still addicted to Clive's cash in the claw ...
And then below the fold in digital la la land, it was no better ...
Three lizard Oz editorials, and a couple of """'s in the mix, and Mandy risen from the dead!! What tosh and drivel is this? What idle padding? The reptiles' business model must be in a world of pain.
Mandy risen again? Why it's worse than that hand lunging out of the grave at the end of Carrie, what with the pond's hope that it had seen the last of Mandy, having seen her let go in the great purge that also saw the GST cake man get the chop ...
Now the stale chips have turned up to entice the gulls in lizard Oz readership land, but the pond wasn't in a buying mood ...
But the pond realised it would have to do something, so it settled for one of the """ characters ...
Sweet long absent lord, not more freedumb, especially the freedumb to die ...
Truth to tell, the pond has had enough of freedumb for the nonce, what with the hanging tree carrying strange fruit ... (no, the pond hasn't gone cryptographic) ...
Yep, the freedom riders were aping Chairman Rupert's spawn, as noted in Junkee ... but the infallible Pope had already dealt with that and the silence of News Corp noted Media Bites (who does get the YouTube advertising revenue?) ... and so the pond decided to play the freedumb game and cry freedumb ... but only by reverting to its lazy Burroughs cut and paste game ...
First to Amy Remelkis in the Graudian, asking back in September Who is Lorraine Finlay and why has her appointment as human rights commissioner angered some?
And now, lo and behold, the freedumb woman turns up in the lizard Oz ... which the pond supposes is marginally better than in an IPA podcast ... and what do you know, she starts off with the infamous Ronnie Raygun ...
Yes, yes, freedumb to die, and all that Killer C rag ... but never mind the apple on the head, the pond is now in full Burroughs mode ... and it's time for the IPA to appear ...
Ah, she's a Bettina groupie, crying freedumb ... so let's have a little more freedumb ...
Ah yes, the pond can't get enough of the freedumb to die ... but perhaps another round with the Graudian celebrating this brand of freedumb, before the pond heads off to the hanging tree?
But no, now here she is, blathering on about freedumb in the lizard Oz, as one does ...
The Graudian kept banging on for an eternity, but one last gobbet to go ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, the pond had thought we were living in a cashless world ... but it seems we have a cashed up freedom warrior, with Freedumb Boy himself on hand to help ...
And what do you know, after hearing the cries, the infallible Pope was on hand to celebrate freedumb, and the return of cash to the tills ...
Well enough of all the freedumb, it's time for a fixing of the bucket with old Henry. It's a sorrowful thing that the hole in the bucket man has been reduced to a bonus, but better late than never ...
The pond can see the nil sum game here.
Either defend the indefensible, reprehensible, neo-fascist dictator for life, or be forced to agree with the hole in the bucket man ...
Indeed, indeed ... it goes without saying that history and historians in the west have trudged a path of infallible truth and wisdom ...
The pond recalls when a lecturer warned the pond off reading Macaulay, because he had nothing useful to say, of the kind found here ... (well it saves re-reading Macaulay, who was, if the truth be told, a tedious old fart) ...
Yes, the pond is bored by our hole in the bucket's recitation of the litany, an easy one, worn into a groove by repetition over the years, and hungers for something else ... perhaps a reference to ancient Greece or Rome, is that too much to ask?
A highly bureaucratic polity?
Sorry, it was just a little acid flashback, and so to the last Henry gobbet, still yearning for a reference to ancient times ...
Yes, that last line was worth waiting for. Specious notions of "historical objectivity" from a fully biased loon is always worth a laugh ... as if the lizard Oz was some kind of haven for "objectivity" ... while Henry is clearly full of fear and loathing for Chinese history, but apparently can ignore the way that "Western Civilisation" managed to produce two grand world wars, not to mention thousands of other examples of "civilisation" over the centuries ... including bizarre religious wars that were more than a match for Shia v Sunni ...
Guess it's just another example of that righteous mote in the eye thingie ...
But at least and at last came a reference to ancient Rome and a historian displaying vast amounts of historical objectivity... but what's this?
Never mind, it's not possible for anyone to get everything right. and Tacitus would no doubt have had the correct view of News Corp and its chairman ...
What say you Tacitus, to the king of kings?
Yes, Google, Facebook and Chairman Rupert must be reined in .
And so as usual to wrap up proceedings with an immortal Rowe, with more chances of immortality here ... as the pond cries freedumb for the natural born liar ...
About the resurrected Mandy: "Now the stale chips have turned up to entice the gulls in lizard Oz readership land..." And it was only yesterday morning that a comment was posted in the Pond saying: "we electors have a few things to answer for too..." and here's Mandy preaching that: "It's hard to be a good leader with voters like us".
ReplyDeleteDo you think Mandy is taking her inspiration from the Pond ?
Yet another day at the coalface for Scott explaining that what you thought you heard him saying/not saying yesterday was not what you heard him saying/not saying. And that in fact of course he's always meant whatever it is he is saying/not saying today.
ReplyDeleteHe must really, really be upset about all these journalists and women who are infesting Australia at present. In fact, a journalist who is a woman might be teh ultimate nightmare eh?
So the Henry offers us a Readers Digest condensed history of history. I was left wondering when he mentioned lectures, plural, on Herodotus. A lecture on Herodotus should not take more than a couple of minutes - to say 'wonderfully amusing collection of stories, some of which might even be true.'
ReplyDeleteSo you reckon, Chad, that when Henry writes: "With historical objectivity everywhere in retreat, today's lies about the past can only fuel tomorrow's nightmares." he's talking about all those Greek "truths" that he is so uncritically addicted to. The ones that have woken our ancestors, screaming in the night, for the last couple of thousand years.
DeleteThursday Nov. 18 Loon Pond -
ReplyDeleteEric Herschthal claimed Lincoln
"that first year and a half he wasn't committed to ending slavery".
It's surprising that even today people underestimate Lincoln, who was playing the long game. He could have given in to everything the South wanted but they were set on leaving,so he
could feign keeping slavery and let the rebels paint themselves as the war mongers who wouldn't be reasonable.
He was a master manipulator and knew he had to slowly bring the people around to his point
of view, even if he had to initially veil his true intent to close allies in his cabinet.
The man could out slick Molotov, P.T. Barnum and Machiavelli on their best day.
Before the war he was one of the best paid lawyers on the then edge of the frontier, often employed by the all powerful railroads who only hired the best legal brains.
His Springfield home by the standards of the day cost a packet.
Lincoln couldn't state he was going to end slavery as a war aim because he would have lost
the slave owning but still loyal border states overnight and with Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky and Missouri suddenly in the CSA's column, it was a possible war ender.
He had to buy time to build armies and ships and the infrastructure needed to win.
Kentucky alone would have been a rich source of manpower and resources, foodstuffs, etc.
for the CSA but far, far more important was it's geography.
It bordered on many states and as a rebel state would have opened up the heart of middle America to attack, causing the diversion of troops from the East and a strategic nightmare.
With Tennessee especially it dominated the major river highways, it was a strategic and tactical linchpin whose possession was vital.
Grant made his bones moving down those river systems, into and thru Tennessee,capturing 2 rebel armies along with Vicksburg, cutting the CSA in half the day after Gettysburg.
Herschthal is blinded by his understandable zeal, he doesn't grasp the enormous tasks confronting Lincoln and the odds against him prevailing over them.
Lincoln had a war to win first in order to free millions of souls in chains, it couldn't
have worked in reverse order.
In respect of Lincoln, JM, perhaps we should note Mandy Vanstone's comment: "It's hard to be a good leader with voters like us". What Lincoln did was good enough to get him assassinated, anyway, and that by somebody who, like many Americans of the time, was named in honour of the British radical journalist and politician John Wilkes, who was widely admired for supporting American independence (he was jailed for it IIRC).
DeleteJersey Mike - always pleased to have your perspective from across the very large pond. That means it arrives a little later, but is an encouragement to go back a day or three.
DeleteGB,
DeleteI never knew that Booth was named after John Wilkes, thanks for sharing!
I had to look up Mandy.
I forward The Pond every day to a buddy in The Great White North - Canada - who
quite liked Mandy's quote, which he shared with his Ottawa pals. See GB, you wake
up in Victoria and post a quote on DP's blog and shortly thereafter they are citing
your post in Ontario. Who'd have thunk back when?
Chadwick,
Thanks pal. I enjoy everyone here, from our Queen DP on down. I live in hope that
some worthy reptile will join and attempt to cross swords with Dorothy, but none
as yet seem up to the challenge. They ought to, it could be fun.
Quite a few Americans back then were named after Wilkes, JM, it was quite popular.
DeleteVery pleased to know that some, especially from the northern-most extent of the Anglosphere (with just a hint of Francosphere) are interested in some aspects of our maunderings down in the the Great Southern Land. And quite right, I never expected this - even just 20 years ago, when I was a fairly enthusiast Bulletin Board subscriber (including Compuserve, but I never really made it onto Fidonet), did I expect this.
As to you, Chad: just which reptile - other than maybe Katrina Gracie on her better days - comes within "light years" (or parsecs) of being "worthy" ? Genuine curiosity here since Nicky the Savva is now long gone.
GB - not since the time of Adrian Deamer have I thought of anyone associated with the Flagship of being 'worthy' - in the good sense. Deamer confirmed his worthiness by having Rupert sack him for an editorial he wrote.
DeleteIn my more particular area of interest - economics - Dame Groan, about 30 years back, was contributing to the work of a well-regarded group across Adelaide and Flinders Us on labour economics. I don't recall that she was lead author of any of the work published, so was an odd choice for a writer on things economic for the reptile world. I was not aware of the Henry, nor of Killer Creighton, before they also became contributors, allegedly on economic matters, and I am fairly sure that the outstanding Australian economists of these last 30 or so years have had more self-respect than to take Rupert's cheques for 'opinions'. There has been the odd book review by someone of genuine reputation, but the quality of contribution there has dropped off quite noticeably in the last 12 years or so.
Adrian Deamer, Chad. Now that's a name from the distant past; he died from cancer in 2000, apparently. But yes, I guess you'd have to go a way back - before Roopie founded his worldwide empire in full force - to find a 'worthy reptile'. It was round about back then when I kinda finally gave up on the Australian altogether (never read any other Roopie rags anyway).
Delete