In response to being grundled, the recently noted on the pond Freyja delivered a couple of blasts at Crikey's grundler, though well down in the comments and so ignored by the grundle lovers that infest the contrarian's comments section:
They might still be incoherent rants and pretentious exercises in heuristic hubris but at least those readers who think that you are a good writer would realise that it only appears that way because few will acknowledge the Seer’s New Clothes syndrome.
PS – as well as writing more carefully and clearly, more concisely would also welcome.
It would spare us these 1,200 word slabs to which you then, in the comments, add further wodges of almost equal length and usually even greater opacity, as if to explain what you failed to make clear initially but a just added equivocation, obfuscation and misdirection.
It would help were you to return the thesaurus (the bad writer’s crutch – like the drunk uses a lamppost, for support rather than illumination ) to the op-shop where you found it – those who rely on one would be better advised to use a kiddies’ picture dictionary.
Why dig up this idle abuse?
Well for starters the pond always loves suggestions about giving up the thesaurus while offering flourishes like "heuristic hubris", and then the pond began to think of all the other reptiles her flourish might apply to ... like the hole in the bucket man ...
Today he means well, tackling the matter of the sociopathic Vlad the impaler, but as usual the doddering old dotard suffers from morbid myopia ... (well you can run into a lamppost, with possibly fatal consequences) ...
Don't get the pond wrong. It loathes Vlad the impaler, always has. What disturbs the pond is when a victim of morbid myopia wanders back into ancient times and picks up the wrong glasses.
If only the doddering old dolt had a modern phone to hand ... then he might discover that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Or perhaps just a little googling might help. Then he might land on William Saletan's October 5th piece for The Bulwark, Fox News: Putin Propaganda Primetime.
Saletan offered the top 20 ant-Ukraine, pro-Russia claims and arguments that Fox viewers are hearing, so all the pond can do is offer a teaser trailer ...
Saletan picks up speed as he looks at all the gushing, quisling, forelock tugging, lickspittle fellow travellers flaunting their wares on Fox ... but you have to be there to get the full flavour ...
Meanwhile, the doddering delusional old dotard keeps wandering back in his time machine ...
Oh enough already with the Clintons. Next thing you know, it'll be her emails that enabled Vlad, as opposed to the orange Jesus ...
If our Henry wanted enablers and lickspittle fellow travellers, he might instead have done some service by blasting Fox News and News Corporation and all the Murdochian hacks ...
He wouldn't have to look far. There was Chris McGreal as recently as 2nd October 2022 asking in the Graudian/Observer, Who is Tucker Carlson really 'rooting for' in Ukraine?
McGreal began by noting that "The Fox News host's fawning commentary and mirroring of Putin propaganda has unsettled even allies on the right", but our Henry is completely clueless, and all the pond can do is offer another teaser trailer featuring a trio of fellow travelling quislings, because Marge and the mango Mussolini are also big Putin lovers...
And so on and so on, but back to the man with morbid myopia and no glasses to help ...
Meanwhile, on another planet, the hole in the bucket man's American kissing cousin has been doing his best to help out, as noted in WaPo here (possible paywall)... and again all the pond can do is offer the link and a teaser trailer, and how to say Tuckyo Rose in Russian ...
Sure the pond could have gone with the meretricious Merritt blathering in favour of corruption in politics, but there's a limit to the pond's masochism, so perforce it had to go with a variant form of simplistic Simonism, from the deep north ...
It's a fine point by a pompous pedant. Just because you attend a Nazi rally and give a Nazi salute to Herr Hitler doesn't make you a Nazi. You were, after all, just there for the spectacle and a chance to appear as an extra in Leni's Triumph of the Will ...
Oh okay, Godwin's Law, the swear jar and all that, but the pond is already so over this Xian crap ... why, it almost makes the pond wonder if the meretricious Merritt campaigning to keep corruption in politics might not have been a better bet ... almost ... better to keep on with the Xian jollies ...
Well yes, and there was more fun on the HUN ...
Abortion=Holocaust, and you had the cheek to fine the pond and toss the coins in the swear jar for breaking Godwin's Law?
It goes without saying that this bunch of bigots are in the "complementary women" camp with the angry Sydney Anglicans ... as the pond selected this sermon at random for citation...
In the bible there are countless examples of godly women, such as: Esther who was intelligent, authoritative, and courageous; Ruth who was loyal and selfless; Deborah who was a bold and courageous warrior.
Women can be strong and bold. However, the fall has made women aspire to perfectionism, to attempt to prove themselves. to gain control using their femininity, to usurp men.
The virgin Mary wh was purported to visit three children at Fatima revealed to them that Russia had to realise the error of its ways and convert to Catholicism.But in all her visits to the children nit one mention of the evils her sons earthly appointed vicar's would visit on children
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of plundering the thesaurus for words to impress the reader - I thought that the Sky News segment last night, when Abbott's Booby interviewed Tuckyo Carlson, could be some kind of apotheosis of intellectual discussion for Rupert's broadcast media. I thought it could be, but not enough to actually watch it - I was just scrolling through offerings on 'Y..tube'.
ReplyDeleteAnd in a spirit of pedantry - ‘Simon Kennedy is a research fellow at the University of Queensland’ (flying from the Flagship this day) - or
ReplyDelete‘Simon Kennedy is an honorary research fellow and lecturer at the Christian Heritage College, which is part of the Citipointe Campus in Brisbane.’ - there, fixed.
Yes - that same Citipointe Campus that tried a novel approach to terms and conditions for teaching staff at its college at the beginning of this year - summarised
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citipointe_Christian_College
so this Simon is well placed to give us the essence of Essendon.
But you do gotta admit, Chad, that really "Along with his position at CHC [Christian Heritage College], Simon is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland."
DeleteIt just puts me in mind of that Santamaria-Menzies chat about opening up the universities and how this was bad because there wasn't anywhere near enough well qualified Uni staff available to do a proper job. But who would have thought that would still be the case 60 years later ? And not only in Queensland.
GB - I was just going by how the University of Queensland lists Kennedy
Deletehttps://iash.uq.edu.au/profile/2225/simon-kennedy
Ah, I got my line from here:
Deletehttps://chc.edu.au/faculty/dr-simon-kennedy/
So it would seem that the difference is the inclusion, or otherwise, of the adjective "honorary".
I think I read somewhere that an honorary is without profit. (Sorry - temptation struck!) ;-)
Delete"...in his own land" Chad ? But how much does he profit for scribbling for the reptiles, or is that 'honorary' too ?
Deletevanity, all is vanity, and cheap too, sayeth the Queensland preacher
DeleteGB - I suspect it is 'honorary' for two reasons - one being that more and more of the, er - 'content' of reptile publications comes for free (think tanks, out and out advertising - sorry, 'special promotions', guff from the too many bodies claiming to represent some or other of the business world) and the second being that there are too many nutters who believe that their imaginary friend (or master - ) demands that they 'spread the word' to those who have not yet been persuaded that their lives must be given over to rejection of simple pleasures and more directed to praising that imaginary friend or master for stultifying their existence.
DeleteA bit like low Anglican Sunday Church: cheap and easy to do and keeps the believers happy.
DeleteAnyway, here's a Crikey read (via MSN) - longish, but interesting:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/why-we-ll-never-see-the-likes-of-tony-abbott-again/ar-AA12Gyv3?
Speaking of dams, in a completely unprecedented media incident, Mr Chris Kenny and Mr Nick Caterer have both made basic errors in their weekly rants.
ReplyDeleteOh woe is us.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/07/sky-news-chris-kenny-fails-to-read-fine-print-over-facebooks-ipa-censorship
That got me reading today's 'Weekly Beast' a little earlier than normal, vc. And what have I said ? Oh yes: "rumours, fantasies, exaggerations and lies".
DeleteMeade’s column certainly gave me the best laugh I’ve had all week. Another Woke Conspiracy Theory exploded by the simple incompetence of its proponents.
DeleteRemember rule 23, Anony: "If I don't ever mention it again, then it never really happened."
DeleteYes, great fun VC, the pond expects all keen students of herpetology to devour the venerable Meade the moment she hits the intertubes. Why if the dog bother turns up tomorrow, the pond will feel the need to use it as an introduction, because there's nothing like repeating an old routine to get a familiar set of laughs.
DeleteJust taking on board John Ferguson - Associate Editor, Melbourne - about sundry "Catholic" matters: "Instead he [Diccy Dan] championed the issue of euthanasia in Victoria - spreading it across the country -" Yeah, nothing quite like having to suffer personally to induce "changes of heart" is there. "in what was arguably the biggest hit to the church's heartland beliefs in its modern history." Well I guess that depends on how far back you think 'history' goes, doesn't it.
ReplyDeleteNow my 'history' goes back at least 60 years, so I was around for all of this:
"On 27 August1975, South Australia became the first Australian state to fully decriminalise homosexual acts. It’s hard to believe now but up until 1899 in Australia, the death penalty could be applied in cases of buggery or sodomy. For many years thereafter, the maximum penalty was life in prison."
40th anniversary of decriminalisation of homosexuality
https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/40th-anniversary-of-decriminalisation-of-homosexuality/#
So, back then you didn't need euthanasia, all you had to do was find somebody else who wanted to die too, commit some serious "buggery or sodomy" and have the fully church approved State do it for you.
And that was all approved of by the Catholic Church and the Catholic God - all three parts of him, unanimously.
Ferguson has some interesting choices of words, GB. He accuses Dictator Dan of “championing” euthanasia, which I assume refers to the introduction of assisted-dying legislation; however so far as I know Dan hasn’t taken to the streets and airwaves shouting “Wanna die? It’s great! Come one, come all, we’ll do you in!” The Victorian Government is also spoken of in disapproving terms as “barely tolerating the Church” - though frankly, I don’t know why that’s a valid criticism in a secular state. Fergie presumably hankers for the Good Old Days when a tyke politician wouldn’t dare support any measures, no matter how justified, to which the Church establishment might object.
DeleteMy recall is that contrary to "championing" euthanasia, Dic Dan opposed it in the usual unthinking "Catholic" way until ... until his own father was seriously suffering and trying to get terminal relief. Just the usual politician's way: other people's sufferings don't mean crap, but his own ? Oh, that's really terrible, gotta fix that. Just like Jane Hume whose father benefitted from the appropriate legislation having already been passed despite her opposition. Hooray.
DeleteAs to Dan's lot “barely tolerating the Church”, I'm against that too: the "Church" should not be tolerated at all.
Very good point GB. Again and again people who identify as conservative have these epiphanies when some issue affects them personally. They don't have the empathy, or possibly the intellectual capacity, to see the problems when someone else is struggling with them. It's much easier to retreat into a cloud of philosophical bullshit rather than face the difficult issues, but, often enough, they have to face the issue anyway and then you have the revelation.
DeletePardon my gratuitous divertissement, but it's something I keep mentioning re Japan's national "debt":
ReplyDelete"Japan has been at allegedly catastrophic levels [of national "debt"] for decades, but it seems to keep serenely swimming along anyway. Conservatives have invented plenty of answers for this—aging population, higher savings rates, cultural differences, etc. etc.—but none of that withstands scrutiny. They simply can't deal with the fact that a big industrial economy with its own currency has been able to survive and even prosper with a national debt more than twice as big as our [the USA's] own."
Who’s afraid of the national debt?
https://jabberwocking.com/whos-afraid-of-the-national-debt/
Yoohoo, have you ever heard of 'MMT' ?
It's all well and good how it works in practice, but how does it work in theory?
DeleteAh, you've been reading N David Mermin on the difference between an "explanation" and a "description", Bef.
DeleteMore accurately, the lack of a link between the two in orthodox economics.
DeleteWell you know that 'theory' is just a bunch of stuff - usually involving the invisible but essential framework, mathematics - that we make up so as to be able to 'explain' reality, ie to be able to predict what we observe to happen in that which we cannot correctly 'describe'. So if there's a clear difference between what we think we should observe ('describe') and what we do observe, then our explanation is simply wrong and must be fixed.
DeleteFor a beautiful example of this:
How philosophy turned into physics – and reality turned into information
https://theconversation.com/how-philosophy-turned-into-physics-and-reality-turned-into-information-191940
In the case of Japan, IIRC, its "debt" is actually mostly to its own bank - ie it's "printed money" not borrowed from some money-grubbing bunch of capitalists. But that's ok, any day we really want to "pay back" our debt, we can just print a lot of money and pay with that, even if we do suffer a little inflation along the way.
Thus is 'explanation' re-united with 'description'.
Kennedy used to scribble for an an outfit titled Calvinist International.
ReplyDeleteAnd back in October 2016 he wrote a doozy of an essay for Quad-rant magazine tiled Liberalism's Problem With Christianity in which, among other things he states that "god's law" as defined by him and his fellow right-thinking (stinking) true believers should always trump any and all secular laws. He also praised an ultra right-wing US christian propaganda outfit which featured the onion muncher as a key-note speaker in one of its gab fests. The ultra-creepy Kevin Andrews had direct links with the same outfit and once gave a speech there too. The said right-wing outfit has been classified as a hate group.
The essay is available online
What's that saying again ? "Birds of a feather something something something ? Trouble is John that there's so many people and so much money sloshing around in the world that any bunch of nutters can get together nutt away to their heart's content.
DeleteExcellent research John and of course the pond couldn't resist once it realised Xianity wouldn't produce a hit. The pond has no problem with a link ...
Deletehttps://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2016/10/liberalisms-problem-christianity/
If the reptiles keep banging on about it, the pond might go to that well for a drink ... what a ripper ending, with salvation banging on the pond's door ...
...In one sense I am suggesting that we re-imagine our society as a part of “Christendom”. This solution on the surface seems similar to the Christendom of the Radical Orthodox. But it is a different Christendom, in that it doesn’t prescribe what is effectively a “clericocratic” political order. That is not the Christendom that can save our hard-won liberal political freedoms. Nor will the Christendom of the Reconstructionists be of much use. A Christian liberal order need not entail a re-enforcement of the Mosaic polity. Indeed, it should not. The Decalogue would likely be a feature of a Christian liberal order, but this is unsurprising as it is pivotal to our current legal arrangements already. Indeed, the Christendom that will save liberalism wouldn’t even require uniformity of belief. Both Christian and non-Christian can find protection within the walls of this Christendom. Both can participate in governance. Faith is not a prerequisite for political wisdom. One doesn’t need to believe, for example, what the Reformers taught about Christian theology in order to understand the principles of early Protestant political ideas on liberty, the role of the civil magistrate, and civil society. Agreeing with and applying Christian political principles does not entail agreeing on Christology or soteriology. The principles of Christian political liberalism are accessible to believer and non-believer alike because both believer and non-believer are capable of political prudence.
Politics is the art of human beings living well together. Without Christianity, liberalism does not seem up to the task of being a good political framework because it lacks a large part of the foundation which made it functional in the first place. Christian principles, such as the imago Dei, form the basis for human dignity and respect for the individual. These principles are not optional for liberalism. Without the Christian faith as a foundation, liberalism will not help us live well together. However, the political order of Christendom can be both liberal and Christian. In fact, the true liberal order is a Christian one and will only function adequately within a Christian philosophical and political framework. That is the Christendom that could save liberalism. Without it, liberalism’s problem with Christianity might become the primary cause of liberalism’s demise.
To retain our liberal political order, it must return to being a fundamentally Christian political order; only then will it be truly liberal. Ironically, it seems that only Christianity can save liberalism.
Simon P. Kennedy lives in Geelong and is a PhD candidate in the history of political thought at the University of Queensland. He writes regularly for the online journal the Calvinist International. He contributed the article “The Destruction of the Family” to the October 2015 issue.
Thank you for doing as Dorothy does - suffering for us, by delving into tosh like, in your case, early items in 'Quad Rant'.
DeleteI’ve made multiple futile attempts to decipher that quote from the new
ReplyDeleteCity on the Hill website Q & A - “The church knowing Jesus and making Jesus known….” (Etc), and failed spectacularly. What the fuck does it mean? I don’t even think it’s a failed attempt at circular logic - just some meaningless waffle intended as camouflage.
Hi Anony. That City on a Hill statement is a prime example of Fundagelical Christianese. You are not meant to know what it means...just be impressed by the sheer mentioning of Jesus (twice). And you've actually nailed its definition in your final sentence.
Delete