Forget the war with China and saving Taiwan.
There's a new slogan at the lizard Oz. First kill all the wombats ...
The pond has no idea why the reptiles decided to take a set against saving wombats, though the pond will admit that hitting a wombat is akin to running a vehicle into a brick dunny ... and to be fair, the other illustrations for the lizard Oz editorial, suddenly at the top of the rotating digital edition, were just as weird ...
Yes, the pond gets those sinister stock snaps, but what the fuck's that guy doing waddling towards Coles with a shopping bag? What does that reveal about the tyranny of fringe parties, as opposed to say the tyranny of Coles' stocking policies, shelf space and pricing?
And the front page of the tree killer edition was equally and astonishingly as newsworthy ...
What unremitting, unmitigated sluts they are ... in the original, unreclaimed, non-feminist sense of the word, taking Clive's cash in the claw, selling their news soul to Zoom ...which makes it all the more amusing that such a useless lizard Oz editorial should lather up itself into a righteous indignation in the cause of the latest bout of comrade Dan bashing ...
You know, the pond doesn't mind minority parties with causes, and while not always agreeing, enjoys the diversity and the vibrancy, as opposed to the dour one party state the reptiles yearn for, and almost achieved with the mango Mussolini.
In particular, the pond has a sneaking regard for wombats and is always pleased to see one, and takes care when spotting one on the road, but after that flurry of reptile tosh, the pond would probably draw the line at a campaign suggesting we save the reptiles ...
Everyone has their breaking point, and the prospect of facing a "Ned" natter on a Wednesday was probably it for the pond ...
Not another snap of gold standard Gladys ... and yet on the upside, the always verbose and pompous and portentous "Ned" has kept it relatively short, and there's not even a hint of a sideways glance at a podcast featuring "Ned" reading himself. Did the reptiles become aware this was just bizarre fluff-gathering for a Chicken Little always hand wringing and shouting at clouds?
Indeed, indeed, where's the harm in a little pork barreling, or having the odd fuck with a man intent on feathering his own nest and the nests of his constituents? And how shamelessly the hapless Obeid family have been treated ... which is why this reptile item barely raised a pond eyebrow ...
Every so often a little hoppy toad pops out in the reptiles' news section, but don't expect "Ned" to notice or to care, because boondoggling and pork barreling is a way of life ...
The pond invites anyone with an hour to spare to run that last line over and over again through the old noggin, in an attempt to understand why "Ned" thinks discussing corruption is more satisfying than actually doing something in the institutional way about corruption.
Sure, nothing much might happen, given the deep corruption and addiction to lying embedded in the current government, but something's better than nothing ... though "Ned's" line does hint at why we've ended up with this cartoon ...
And so to a last gobbet from "Ned" ...
That last par is just as weird as the rest of "Ned's" offering, because he spent much of his time siding with gold standard Gladys and demonising ICAC ... only to warn SloMo of the folly of doing so ...
Weird shit, and so to the rest of the day's weird offerings ...
The bouffant one in a lather about an obscure report that didn't stray anywhere near "Ned's" keyboard?
Oh that one ... so the pond just wasted another start to the day with an out of touch "Ned" ... and as for all that ongoing blather about the war on China, the infallible Pope had a different question this day ...
Sheesh, more headline reading for the pond ...
Time to seek shelter with the Jesuits ...
Spoiler alert ... it seems, judging by the four comments that turned up when the pond was reading, that Frank is preaching to a divided reptile house ...
Indeed, indeed, Adam and Eve, complimentary women, creationism and such like, not to mention Islam, they all deserve government cash in the paw ... but as you might expect, someone trained in the art of Jesuitry is a bit more clever in his arguments ...
Those few religious zealots? But billy goat butt, we currently have a speaker in tongues and a healer with the laying on of hands in charge, and not so long ago we had a fundamentalist onion muncher ...
Perhaps there are a few more of them about than Frank acknowledges, and a lot of them seem to turn up for succour and a friendly hearing at the lizard Oz ...
Yes, you can drive a truck through this blather about an "ethos", and reasonable and proportionate discrimination, and all the rest of the tosh, and the bigots will go on doing what they've always done, but with just a little more protection ... which no doubt suits the Catholic church ...
Note how the cunning Jesuit has picked out "highly conservative or evangelical schools", and proffers the notion that staff selection should not be on the basis of sexual orientation ... and yet here's what you sign up for when you get entangled in the Catholic system ...
Yep, you're not in the business of education, you're in the Catholic propaganda game, propping up the ponzi scheme courtesy of government taxpayer money in the paw, and no amount of blather about religion and believes being caught rather than taught can hide the nakedness of purpose ...
And so to a bonus, and the pond, running long, almost thought it would drop Dame Slap, but then old tribal loyalties kicked in ...
It's important to be reminded of the IPA view of the world every so often ... or so the ABC seems to think by routinely inviting on the likes of John Roskam ...another reason why the pond will never watch Q and A, especially when they serve up this sort of twaddle as part of the show's promotion ...
Widley regarded as Ausralia's foremost free-market think tank? Who is this 'widely'?
So what's the foremost want to do to the ABC?
And so on and on, and sorry, sorry, the pond was supposed to be dealing with the handsomely paid Dame Slap railing at equal pay, when thanks to a decent religious education, we know complimetary women should really be in the home, with the possible exception of Dame Slap ...
Hmm,how as that campaign been going these past 50 years? Maestro, could we have a colourful graph, perhaps not full Kohler, but choleric enough ...
There's more here, but it's back to Dame Slap ...
Visiting planet Janet these days seems like a time travel ride back to the 1950s ... the arguments are all the same, and male-centric.What if a man decided to fully participate in the raising of his spawn? Would he suffer by way of discrimination and pay cuts?
Who knows, because Dame Slap is a '50s sort of gal ... routinely alarmed by activists ...
Oh there could be worse things. There could be meddling journalists in an interfering unelected radicalised social engineering activist way in a dangerously radicalised unelected newspaper, trying to change the world by brazenly peddling IPA theories, and without even the decency to mention her status as IPA chairman in the visible bit of her thumbnail bio ...
But then the IPA has long been at this game, and in an equal opportunity, unelected, radicalised, offensive way ...
That was just another example of crocodile tears from interfering unelected radicalised social engineerng activists ... but at least, thanks to the immortal Rowe, the pond can end on its usual high, with more highs here ...
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteYes protect the wombat. Anything that can shit cubes is worth saving.
https://gizmodo.com/scientists-learn-even-more-about-wombats-and-their-beau-1846159392
DiddyWrote
:)³
DeleteMason and Brennan: "...general laws to preserve and protect society are not defeated by a plea of religious obligation to breach them. Religious conviction is not a solvent of legal obligation."
ReplyDeleteNow can anybody tell me how that differs from a clear statement that the so-called "gods" don't actually exist ? Otherwise how can a simple human law overcome and deny the demands of the omnipotent (and omniscient and immanent) "god" who had the power to not only create the entire universe, but also to create the creatures that would live in this minuscule part of it. And be obliged to worship "Him" and obey his commandments implicitly and explicitly.
So clearly Mason and Brennan are declaring that any such "god" is not to be obeyed if "His" commandments are in opposition to human law. And then Brennan says this: "The bill recognises that religious schools must be free to uphold the tenets of their faith..." But how can they do that when their "tenets" uphold their requirement to fully obey their "god's" commandments even though they be seriously opposed to the laws instituted by humans.
The only way I can think about this is that most religions seem to have been started back when humans were still quite primitive - the Greeks hadn't formalised the laws of logic and were only just beginning to investigate mathematics. So "god" must have been fully aware that we humans simply weren't going to understand a single word that he thundered, and we were going to have to spend thousands of years guessing what he really commanded. And we still haven't managed it, so "secular law" is every bit as much a failed guess as to what "god" was really commanding us as are the words written in the various 'holy books'.
So keep going, folks, one day we might get it right.
"Yep, you're not in the business of education, you're in the Catholic propaganda game..."
ReplyDeleteSo, DP, the Catholics boast that they comprise about 17.7% of the world:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/number-of-catholics-increasing-worldwide-falling-in-europe-1.4710161
So now let me see: the one and only religion actually endorsed by "god" has, after about 2000 years of preaching, teaching and proselytising not even managed to achieve a count of 1 in 5 people. And the number of them is decreasing in Europe.
Now if I were some omniscient, omnipotent, immanent "god", I'd just quietly reckon that was a totally inadequate failure. Either that or "god" doesn't give a rat's fart how many "Catholics" there are because he abandoned Catholicism years ago.
Question without notice.
DeleteWhy the omniscient, omnipotent, immanent business? Surely it would be easier to explain all the shit that goes down if your god was a bit smaller, missed a few things or maybe was on holidays when something important happened.
If you just peeled back the bit about omniscience the whole freewill/trials and tribulation thing would make more sense. As it stands the lord knows who will succeed or fail but still insists on running the experiment.
Just asking for an agnostic friend.
Introduce your friend to 'irony' and 'sarcasm', Bef.
DeleteAnd keep in mind that a "god" who was truly "omniscient, omnipotent and immanent" has no alternative but to "run the experiment" because his omniscience tells "Him" that that's what has happened, because to true omniscience nothing can ever change because everything - from eternity past to eternity future - is already known. So his entire existence is one unchanging eternal 'moment'.
Oh you're on fire GB ... the pond particularly loves the question of the lost souls before Christ landed (or if you will, why he landed in the middle east and not say China so that they could all be saved first) ...
DeleteQ. Human remains have been found that are 50,000 years old. But Christ came to earth only 2,000 years ago. Are all those “pagan” people before Jesus now in purgatory? And why did he wait so long to come? (Houma, Louisiana)
A. My first instinct is to quibble with your use of the word “pagan” to describe all those who lived on earth before Jesus. My dictionary defines “pagan” as “a follower of a polytheistic religion” or “one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods.” I hardly think that definition fits the Jews — who fought to defend monotheism, had a strong commitment to prayer, and a strict code of personal morality.
But on to your question: Catholic theology has traditionally taught that the righteous who came before Jesus were in the “limbo of the fathers,” a sort of spiritual waiting room where they remained until “in his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church in No. 637.
As to why Christ “waited so long” to come to earth, that is a matter of perennial speculation — to be answered, I suppose, only in heaven when we can ask the Lord ourselves. One theory is that the Roman Empire provided the optimal setting, because by then, common roads and a common tongue united the known world and the message of the Gospel could spread more quickly. (By that same reckoning, though, others would argue that the present day would have been better, since Twitter offers a worldwide system of instantaneous communication.)
https://cruxnow.com/church/2015/08/what-happened-to-the-people-who-died-before-jesus-was-born
Ah, 'irony' and 'sarcasm' - I must try harder.
DeleteThe circularity of it all must be the appeal. A war with no purpose but the war itself. I think I can see the appeal to the Bromancer.
Hmm, has any war ever had any 'purpose' but the war itself, Bef ? Has there ever been other than 'Warrior Kingdoms' amongst humanity ? As indeed they all are now.
DeleteAh, DP, that is, of course, why we must all be Creationists because if we followed 'methodological naturalism' we'd have to acknowledge that homo sapiens sapiens has been around on Earth for at least 200,000 years (and various other 'homo' species for a lot longer though all are extinct now) and Iesus Christos would have to answer for the nearly 100 billion homo sapiens sapiens that had lived before the time that the Kingdom of Israel was handed the "Commandments".
But otherwise, yes Twitter and Facebook and the English language (far, far more 'universal' than Roman). Or maybe wait just a few more years and Sina Welbo and Renren and Chinese will be totally universal.
I see hints that the Trump stooges on the US Supreme Court are likely to follow the precedent of Gregory of Nyssa (perhaps unknowingly?) and re-assert that souls are generated at the instant of fertilization. I doubt that they will offer guidance on what to do about the souls so generated, but who are subsequently sent out into the world in a form in which they are unlikely to survive, simply because they missed their chance to implant in an accommodating womb. As I have referenced before, the proportion of those that implant - but then let go, or are, gasp, rejected, is about 50%, but we have no real indication of how many completely miss.
DeleteOh, DP - I'm guessing the Catechism doesn't go into detail of which limbo those souls occupy. Lots of them, but not needing a lot of space.
That's no problem, Chad: just require all women of conceivable age to have an MRI every week or two and if a foetus is detected that subsequently disappears then charge the woman with murder - or at least serious manslaughter.
DeleteSee, easy-peasy if you're an American Repug. And after all, it's just what's happening already:
US women are being jailed for having miscarriages
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59214544
"It's important to be reminded of the IPA view of the world every so often ... "
ReplyDeleteYes, and that's why I'm ok with seeing Roskam and claque on the ABC. It's the only way any number of people are going to understand why the IPA should be abolished. After all, some people do watch Q&A (not me, I hasten to add) who would never otherwise encounter Roskam. But hey, he used to be the man that Cater is now and that's something to know, isn't it ?
Of Roskam - ‘He is a member of the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Public Administration.’
DeleteSo the IPA’s version of the long march through the institutions continues. This justifies my decision (of about 30 years ago) to part company with the Institute of Public Administration, because the then Chairperson seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time travelling the country, giving her standard talk on ‘A bias to ‘yes’’. It was very much her talk and her agenda, because it reflected little of historic thinking on public administration, nor of the members of the executive body of that time.
I do concede it certainly worked for her - she became the first CEO of ‘Centrelink’ - and promptly dropped anything that might recall ‘bias to ‘yes’’ in the way ‘Centrelink’ has operated.
Marvellous. I've lived in this country for 78 years and even worked on and off for the Federal Pubserve over many years and I can't recall ever having heard of the Institute of Public Administration. Just another one of those shadowy organisations that only those "in the know" know of.
DeleteBur now ‘A bias to ‘yes’’: is this the well known bias of young children to answer yes/no questions with yes regardless of the 'correct' answer, or are we talking about "How short term agility prevents long term crisis" ?
https://www.nbforum.com/nbreport/bias-yes-short-term-agility-prevents-long-term-crisis/
And is that Rebecca Skinner to whom you refer ?
GB - no, different source of bias - just the same title, because I guess the author was not aware of the studies and literature on the childhood psychology. I refer to Sue Vardon, who skipped across assorted jurisdictions in the 80s/90s (NSW, SA, Commonwealth) in agencies usually with 'welfare' in their title. Like many, she seemed to realise that it was a good idea to be appointed, roll out the great re-organisation, put up the manifesto - then seek the next appointment before estimates committees could ask about verifiable progress on any of the grand, always innovative, programs. Apparently she even put in an application to be Police Commissioner in NSW; an innovative move, given she had no police service on her c.v.
DeleteHer version of a 'Bias to 'yes'' was that government agencies tended to say 'no' to most proposals that public entrepreneurs put before them; and we would all progress faster and further if such agencies had to explain why they did not say 'yes'. She was a bit early to fit much of the thinking of current Nationals MPs.
The Institute of Public Administration was particularly strong in South Australia, in part reflecting the continuing influence of Elton Mayo, and carried on with the groups studying labour psychology and economics at Adelaide University, and later Flinders (of which our Dame Groan was a minor contributor).
As the newer universities started to cultivate students for courses in management and administration, branches in other states acquired more members, but the themes of the Institute tended to reflect McKinsey and other management consultancies, and that Scandinavian economist Jobson Grouth.
Ah, Sue Vardon must gave trained as an IT project manager: start things off, recruit a team, create a timetable, hang around for a month or two, then shove off to do the same all over again somewhere else with another bunch of suckers. And there was so much catchup to do, and so many projects to start, that it could be kept up for literally years.
DeleteYes, I was aware of that great South Australian, Elton Mayo and his Hawthorne studies. Haven't heard, or used, his name in a couple of decades or so, though.
Just to round out the link, GB - I did check, and the Electorate of Mayo in South Australia, which was supposed to be the 'rotten borough' of Lord Downer and his heirs, is named for Elton's sister, Helen
DeleteAnd well deserved too it seems, Chad. Though she did fail those two essential subjects - Latin and Greek - at her first attempt at getting an education.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRight on Dorothy, more power to people that actually care about something beyond keeping the sponsors happy and a nice little gig after leaving parliament. Wombats - yes, recycling yes, getting rid of plastic bags - about fucking time, accepting the realities of sex work - at long last, and all the rest as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat a strange inverted world the reptile inhabit. Corruption is not an issue, investigating corruption is the issue. Sexual assault and bullying aren't issues, damage to the government's reputation and men's careers are the issue. Greiner and O'Farrell were blameless victims of a witch hunt - no mention of Metherell or AWH. They could have stood aside like Wran pending a finding but it was much better just to go and avoid the legal consequences.
Mrs Bef was making the point today that minority government under Gillard worked quite well because issues that were usually just ignored had to be addressed in some cases. The government and their propaganda arm hate it because it looks too much like democracy but a lot of normally side-lined people actually get a hearing for a change.
Yeah, the Gillard years were probably the best time we've had since Chifley.
DeleteHer government still, as far as I know, holds the record for the number of 'Acts of Parliament' passed per sitting day.
:)³ Yes, dammit, the pond likes its wombats ... and it likes those who like all kinds of wombattery ...
DeleteYes, before we move on, in preparation for Henry day, let's acknowledge wombats. One of the truly pleasant features of this site is that we don't obsessively get into a turmoil about reptiles and their meretrickery - we can take a little detour to contemplate wombats, or music, or verse from Kez. Thank you, Dorothy
ReplyDelete