In which the hole in the bucket man does Friday duty, backed up by an ancient quill ...

 

 

It should go without saying that the pond welcomes and encourages boycotts of the pond. 

Herpetology is not for everyone, and the pond confesses that on some days it feels such a creepy field of study that the pond's flesh crawls and hairs stand up on nape of neck ...

The pond can't bring itself to look at the ongoing deeds of smirking Sharri - she was at it again today - and sometimes sorting out the various grades of reptile evil and stupidity is too much ... how to chose between reports of Tuckyo Carlson, Killer Creighton, the dog botherer and petulant Peta? Where to draw the line?

Just look at today's reptile offerings ...

 

 

 

 

 

Ever since a correspondent shattered the pond's innocence about simplistic Simon, just looking at him sends the pond into a fit ... and then to find him cheek to jowl with jolly Josh is just too creepy and weird ...

The pond sometimes rushes to the bathroom for a frenzied scrubbing of hands and eyes, but what if they become raw and red with the rubbing? 

Then the pond reaches for a cartoon and perhaps news of savvy Savva ...

 

 

 

Perhaps the pond suffers from a form of bulimia ...

Every time the pond goes to check out the reptile front page, there's an ominous sense of foreboding ...

 

 

 

 

There's the reptiles taking Clive's cash in the claw, like the shameless sluts they are (settle, the pond will reclaim the word another day), while there's simplistic Simon up the top, and that rebounding bounder shamelessly fellow trading on a complete loss of memory.

How is it possible to not feel nausea, or at least the sense of living on another planet? 

Per Perth Now ...

Scott Morrison claims he never referred to people in Western Australia as “cave people”, but Premier Mark McGowan has dodged questions about the issue during their joint press conference.
The Prime Minister has been in WA this week – for the first time in more than 200 days largely due to the state’s hard border – boasting about the fairer GST deal he got for WA and making a range of other promises as he went into unofficial election mode.
But during a heated press conference on Thursday, Mr Morrison was grilled about comments he had made in August last year when he appeared to liken WA to cavemen.
He had been discussing COVID-19 vaccination rates when he said it was “absurd” for any state to think they could protect themselves from the Delta strain forever.
“Now it’s like that movie The Croods,” he told the Today show, in reference to the children’s film about cavemen.
“Some wanted to stay in the cave and the young girl wanted to deal with the challenges of living in a different world. COVID is a different world … we can’t stay in the cave.”
His comments caused widespread outrage in WA, but on Thursday he insisted he was never referring to the state specifically.
“I was never referring to WA on that occasion,” he said.
When a reporter said he had labelled WA people as The Croods, he said: “No I didn’t actually. I wasn’t referring to WA at all, at all. So I can only disagree with the presumption of your question.”
Asked if WA had overreacted to the COVID-19 threat, he said no.
“I think WA has travelled its own path and rightly, and the results speak for themselves,” he said.
Further asked about WA’s hard border – which the federal government was initially against and even supported billionaire Clive Palmer in his legal challenge before dropping out – Mr Morrison said it was an “early lesson” for his government during the pandemic.
“Did the Premier convince me to change my mind? Yes, he did,” he said.
It was Mr McGowan’s first media appearance since his self-imposed quarantine upon returning to WA from NSW where he was forced to give evidence in-person at his defamation trial involving Mr Palmer.
“It’s great to experience some vitamin D in my system once again. I haven’t had vitamin D for a week or so,” he joked.
“Welcome to the Prime Minister. I can’t help but feel partially responsible for his absence for the last 200 or 300 days.”
Asked about The Croods comment, Mr McGowan said: “Everyone knows my views on those things. I’m not going to engage in some sort of political attacks today. It’s not appropriate that I do that.”
Mr McGowan told reporters they could ask him on another day.
“I’m not going to get into that sort of political tit for tat,” he said.
At the time, the Premier said Mr Morrison’s comments were “an odd thing to say”.
“Sometimes people are too focused on where they are and they don’t realise that outside of NSW it’s a very different situation. Australia is bigger than just NSW,” he said.
“We are not living in caves – we are living a normal life.”

Never mind, Friday's reptile duties usually mean a visit to the hole in the bucket man's cave, and so it came to pass, with our Henry apparently unaware that he's kissing cousin to Fox News and the likes of Killer Creighton ...

 

 

 

Indeed, indeed, and if you wanted an example in the corporate world, would you have to go further than News Corporation and Faux Noise?

That blather about strategic elites might have come freshly minted from some member of the News Corp strategic elite moaning about strategic elites ...

You see? Even when the hole in the bucket man seems to be talking sense about Vlad the impaler and his authoritarian dictatorship, the pond gets agitated and irritated when he fails to mention the panderers, the quislings, the lickspittle fellow travelers ... all given a home in News Corp, settling in right beside him, or perhaps even further right ...

And the pond is reduced to noting that it was once given a severe dressing down by its English teacher for starting a sentence with "and", a thought crime almost as bad as starting a sentence with "however" ...

However, this time the pond will say nothing, except ..."and then" ...

 

 

 

Indeed, indeed, it's a bit like those weird divisions and cracks now forming in News Corp ... per Vanity Fair ...

 

 

 

 

And then?

 

 

 

Ah yes ... backs to the wall ...

 

 

 

And then the image immediately reminded the pond of another ...

 

And dammit the pond almost forgot about our Henry, but there's still a gobbet to go ... and what joy a reference to the ancient Greeks ...

 

 

 

What, Creon, and Sophocles, but no mention of Sparta? 

Must the pond continue with its toilet reading on ancient Greece and its feuding states?

The News Corp experience reveals one direction that the media city-state could take: demanding a total commitment by an individual in return for a stable environment and a defined, secure place in the social hierarchy. Life in News Corp was marked by consistency purchased at the expense of creativity and freedom. The philosophical foundation of society was that the whole is greater than any of its parts and that an individual can only find true happiness and fulfillment when he is a component of something larger, tugging the forelock in the direction of the Chairman ...

Sorry, sorry, the pond was just messing with talk of Sparta here ... but it's long gone.

And now as the pond needs some Friday filler for a bonus, why not a clarion call from bubble-headed booby Claire?

 

Ah yes, but what about News Corp? Wasn't Killer only yesterday strutting the pond's pages in fine appeaser, quisling mode?

 

 

 

 

What's next, apart from delaying the inevitable new Soviet Empire, cheered on by Killer? Perhaps more news of Fox ...

 

 

 

 

 Et tu Tuckyo? 

And then? Hold on, hold on, there's always Laura ...

 

Ah, yes, thoughts and prayers, and never mind those who sought shelter in a theatre ...

And so back to the blissfully unaware bubble-headed booby, blathering into the News Corp void ... when really the only proper and sensible response is a boycott of News Corp now and forever (naturally including the pond as second hand goods purveyor of the worst of the worst, or at least as much as a sensitive stomach allows) ...

 

 

To be sure, it's reasonable to be a Murdochian ...

 

 

 

And now, before turning to a bit of both-siderism about left-wing and right-wing populists, what about a jolly jape among chums?

 

 

 

Enough already, you can discover much more about the pranking at Vox here ... so delicious, and in keeping with Claire apparently being unaware that she's kissing cousin to Tuckyo Carlson...

 

Well done, well said, well played ... apparently while being unaware that the mango Mussolini remains a Faux Noise star, and Tuckyo its mega star ... but then ...

 

 

 

Yes, the real danger comes when you're apparently unaware how you're scribbling for News Corp, home of hardcore mango Mussolini devotees and Tuckyo types of the Laura kind ...

And so to end where the pond began this day, thanks to the immortal Rowe, with more Rowe here ...

 

 

 

 

Oh no, not Bid, not sweet Bid! How can the pond ever look at simplistic Simon again with a straight face?

So here's a bonus tweet ...