Why only the other day the pond saw the fruits of a religious education in a story,
Antisemitism is on the rise everywhere, and it seems high school sports are no exception. Students at a Jewish school and a Catholic school in Miami came to blows this week after a soccer game when players allegedly hurled antisemitic slurs and said, “Hitler was right.” Shoves and punches were exchanged between students from the Scheck Hillel Community School and Archbishop Coleman Carroll High School, leading to one injury. Video shows an initial confrontation escalating as teammates and eventually participants from the stands join in.
It distressed the pond. What happened to the good old Catholic school days when biblically aware Catholic students would shout that Jews killed Christ, and also drank the blood of Xian babies?
But back to the matter of bigotry, and the right of any decent Xian to be homophobic, transphobic, and to make sure that women absolutely had no control over their bodies, and the need to impress all this on vulgar youff while envelopes bearing gifts turn up in trays to keep the Ponzi scheme afloat ...
A moral core? So that's what they're calling bigotry and the persecution of minorities, and the abuse of women these days?
Luckily one gobbet would see the pond to the end of this return to the glory days, together with the sad realisation that you can never go back to those lost days of summer, and you probably never should try to go back ...
Note how she manages to drag a rabbi into the mix to propose that the state is a religion, and all the pond could think was that she lacked the marbles or the killer instinct to match the frock lover in top form ...
The pond realises that projection is the name of the game for reptiles, but this was pitiful, as sad as the routine that climate science is a religion, as if tossing incense about in a burner was a form of science.
And so it was on to prattling Polonius and the usual history lesson ...
For those wondering about the "two ye", relax, it's a term of measurement derived from a US rapper ...though the pedant might freak out when he realises the lizard Oz sub-editor dropped off his explanatory footnote. (As for being virtually alone, please no mention of
lend-lease).
More importantly, this day sees Polonius romping like a pig in shit, and he's so delighted and transported and ecstatic, in all the excitement, he completely fails to mention the ABC ...
Pedants might wonder how the pedant in chief might gloss over the great conscription battles in the first world war, but perhaps best not to say anything, given the way the Catholics were in the wrong camp ... (at least if you're a Sydney Institute warrior)
'If you think Australia demands you should vote for conscription, do so. If you think it would not be good for Australia, then my advice is you should vote against it. That is what I hope every one of you will do to those have unfortunately brought this question up again. But if you are going to keep Australia free from conscription, if you are going to keep this military slavery outside Australia, you must leave no stone unturned. Others have money, but you have votes. They will spend their money lavishly in order to carry this vote. If you are lethargic they will carry it against you.
Every man, woman and child should throw themselves into the fight in the next few weeks against conscription.'
ARCHBISHOP MANNIX IN THE FRAY. (1917, November 16). The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW: 1886 - 1942), p. 2. Retrieved September 8, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article125931449
Oh the devious, filthy traitor, but on with the liar from the Shire and his stunning achievement ...
Not a single mention of the ABC, and tremendous insights, such as the French clock man and Malware being former prime ministers, but alarming because here Polonius has strayed on to bromancer turf, and the bromancer had a lot to say this weekend ...
Fair warning, the bromancer rabbits on endlessly, full eight gobbets deep, and is still lathering up hysteria about balloons in these febrile security times, when trust the Guardian to try to stick a pin in it with
Object downed by US missile may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon.
The pond has been down this path many, many times before with the lizard Oz Generalfeldmarschall and warns that there is absolutely nothing to see here, and the pond has only run with it because it always follows the thoughts of Generalfeldmarschall Bromancer, up there with the strategic thinking of Carl von Clausewitz ...
If you have a life to lead, and decide to go elsewhere, the pond will understand, because for the nth time, and that's a long, long time, as long as the twelfth of never, the Generalfeldmarschall talks of subs, subs, subs ... but not before being aquiver with anticipation and dread ...
What an excellent armchair general he makes and that whiff of port - or is it a dry sherry - or is it a generous serve of Pedro Ximenez - gives additional authority, as much as the whiff of a leather chair and a full length leather coat ...
\Strange how optimistic the bromancer is now sounding about the subs. The pond can remember the days when a mere mention of the sub delivery by the 12th of never would send him off into a caterwauling, frothing, foaming frenzy, but now he seems quite sanguine ...
The bromancer seems to have it all nutted out ...but then reality dawns, and the dream disappears like a mirage in the desert ...
The pond did warn that this was going to be a long treatise, suitable only for experts, and there are simply no suitable cartoons to provide a break ...
Precisely, no bandaid here, all that does is make you wonder whether that fish escaped Springfield ...
We'd be better off with a pointless shot of planes zooming through the skies ... and the reptiles will always oblige ...
Blood kiwis, as the bromancer keeps getting excited about al the kit coming his way ...
It's all splendid stuff, and things seem to be going swimmingly, and then the pond regrets to report that the reptile graphics department struck a sour note ...
WTF? What's a tank doing in a bromancer story? Is the graphics department completely clueless? They may as well have put a Satanic cross into the bible.
We all know the bromancer's thoughts on those useless tin cans ...
We know that Ukraine keeps pleading for tanks, but we also know that when our Generalfeldmarschall Bromancer revives the Brisbane line, he'll stick to missiles, because missiles have been working tremendously well for Vlad the Impaler ...
And with those distractions out of the way, the pond has filibustered its way to the final short bromancer gobbet, and emerged none the wiser about the kit that the Generalfeldmarschall Bromancer is about to deploy in the war with China, or not, depending on the gods...
A new approach, probably something like World War II?
World War II is a new approach? The pond was reminded again that Generalfeldmarschall Bromancer likes to follow the dictum "Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war","Generals prepare to fight their father's war"...
The pond is inclined to follow Sun Tzu
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
Or perhaps ...
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Good advice, and if you know the bromancer, you know you're fucked, and you also know that the advice applies to many fields of conflict ...
And so to a final meditative thought.
For awhile now, the pond has been thinking of drawing attention to the lectures provided by Gresham College. Many of the pond's correspondents are probably already aware of them, and the pond certainly doesn't expect anyone to stick with this example on a computer, but there are a wide range of topics covered, not just paganism, but pagan maths, pagan physics, pagan history and assorted other pagan disciplines, far removed from the lizard Oz, and the pond enjoys the determined eccentricity of the lecturers assigned to the business of an hour long lecture ... to wit ..
The most fascinating snippet in the Bromancer’s latest military hardware fanzine is the “we” reference to “everyone involved in national security”. It’s long been clear that the Bro considers himself a player in defence policy, but is this the first time that he’s moved from a private fantasy to an open declaration that he’s a mover and shaker in the field? We need to be alert for further developments - a move to cosplay, for example, such as pics of the Bro wearing combat fatigues while reporting from defence industry factories, or the adoption of a formal “Defence Correspondent-General” uniform for media appearances. In the meantime, I’m sure that his fan-fiction will continue to provide plenty of light relief and morning tea chuckles in the Defence offices of Russell and Campbell Park.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps we could look in those boxes of odd keepsakes for any old school exercise books which still have a blank page or three at the back. Send them to the Bro. c/- Limited News, and he can work out his little fantasies, as many of us did when we were about 9-10 years old, drawing astonishingly complicated pictures of war at sea, with battleships firing at each other, and at 'planes in the sky, which, in turn, were sending streams of dots in 4B at each other. He would certainly draw a line halfway across the page so he could include submarines. Innocents that we were in the '50s, we did not include ICBMs in our illustrations - and our Bro. generally ignores them also.
DeleteSo - to the boxes in the garage; to use up the Bro's excess energy.
As I recall, it was almost exclusively lads who put battle scenes on the back pages of our exercise books. Girls of that age drew horses, in every spare space, and teachers seemed not to mind that.
Oh "dots in 4B" - a real blast from the past there, Chad.
DeleteAh, I have fond memories of those back-of-exercise book illustrations, Chad (though I tended more towards spaceships and aliens myself). Could it be that as a student the Bromancer was strictly forbidden from such activity, so it’s only in journalism that he’s been able to express his childhood military fantasies?
DeleteAh, there's a thought, Anonymous. The 'Wiki' has the Bro. being educated at various Christian Brothers schools. There was one in my home town, and we heathens were well aware of the nigh relentless pressure on lads at 'the Brothers' to abstain from almost all kinds of diversions and pleasures, so they could hear the 'calling' to go into the priesthood. That worked with two or three lads in each year, but most of the others were oblivious. Meanwhile, over at the Convent girls school, some suitably authoritative nun had the girls abjuring any thought of going out with boys from any of the other schools, but lads from 'the Brothers' were, by definition, utterly trustworthy, would respect every aspect of the virtue of the girls in every way, and their parents would approve also. The lads at 'the Brothers' thought that was a great arrangement, and, when we did mix after sporting contests, would let us know about particular 'hot' items at the Convent, who were effectively reserved for 'good' Micks.
DeleteOh my: use of "Micks". You are turning on the nostalgia, Chad.
DeleteShannahanna: "...when...there is a proviso to present 'alternative views' that ignore the fundamental nature of Judeo-Christian teaching.." The funny thing is that schools should teach their students about the nature of the world and society that they're going to have to get accustomed to living in. And that includes, as of the 2021 census "38.9% of Australians (or 9,886,957 people) selected either 'no religion' or specified their form of irreligion, almost nine percent higher (and 2,846,240 more people) than the 2016 census."
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_Australia#:~
So, maybe a whole 1/3rd of Australians have been or are being taught in 'religious schools', but very nearly 40% (and increasing, year by year) of us don't believe a word of it. So why should we allow religious nutters to be able to discriminate against us.
As soon as that phrase “Judeo-Christian” - a creation of the US conservative intelligentsia - turns up you can be certain that you’re in for a reactionary religious diatribe. And really, would you expect anything else from Angie Darling?
DeleteThe A-a-a-an-gelic one, or her AI persona, is showing good reptile training for this weekend. Open up with a salvo of identity politics, which is what her/its first three paragraphs are, then further differentiate within the ‘third of Australian parents’, because on the way through, she/it are so liberal in claiming that ‘Most religious schools do not discriminate against teachers or students who are gay or lesbian.’, and I say ‘on the way’ because we are taken to the proclamation of the ‘moral core of belief on human sexuality and procreation of human life’.
DeleteSo A-a-a- continues to differentiate the Shanners from much of that ‘third of parents’, because, following the directions of one faith, they have gone forth and multiplied in a way that the great majority of families have not, but - here is the rub - on her own, tragic, admission, even within that family they have not maintained the moral core. She has had to write to tell us of her pain - yes, her pain, in having to tell one of their offspring that he would have to accept that he could never consider himself part of the Shanners family in the same way as his brothers and sisters do, because his partner in life was of the same sex.
Not that that is an ‘alternative view’. No, it became part of the existential pain our Angelic has to suffer for trying to exist within the moral core. Make that THE moral core, in this context. Perhaps in that life after this, the Shade of some former Pope, will explain to her why that suffering was inflicted on her. Fortunately, it is unlikely that she, or her continuing AI persona, will be able to share the reason with us, but, in the meantime - fight, fight, fight against them ‘alternative views.’
Naah, like I say it's all about religious freedom: we simply can't allow those religious believers to discriminate against us 'non-religious' types by refusing to employ us.
DeleteHer again: "Labor already has had swings against it in western Sydney." Que ? There hasn't been any federal elections in western Sydney since Labor was elected in May last year, has there ?
ReplyDelete"For awhile now, the pond has been thinking of drawing attention to the lectures provided by Gresham College".
ReplyDelete"Since 2001, the college has been recording its lectures and releasing them online in what is now an archive of over 2,000 lectures."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham_College
Strewth, DP, that's a life sentence for the likes of some of us. But Pagans ?
Listened to about half of it in a first go, but I was a little puzzled to not hear any mention of the Brittains of Cornwall and Devon who 'emigrated' to the continent and formed Brittany back when hordes of Anglo-Saxons were settling in Britain.
DeleteMaybe I just wasn't hearing too good:
Turning on the subtitles more often? Here's why film and TV dialogue has got harder to hear
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-20/netflix-subtitles-streaming-dialogue-hard-to-hear/101953464
DP "but alarming because here Polonius has strayed on to bromancer turf, and the bromancer had a lot to say this weekend ..."
ReplyDelete.
I'd love to hear you DP, propagandise the Sky propaganda propaganda:
"Murdoch propaganda pushes Australia to double its military budget for war with China
By Caitlin Johnstone
Feb 17, 2023
"To be clear, this is not just a call to increase military spending, this is a call to propagandise Australians into consenting to more military spending. It’s not very often that the propaganda comes right out and explains to you why it is propagandising you.
https://johnmenadue.com/murdoch-propaganda-pushes-australia-to-double-its-military-budget-for-war-with-china/
I was just wondering today about how Oz’ neighbours view a nation which overlooks regional alliances and chooses to link up with countries 15 thousand kms in either direction, especially as both allies seem particularly flaky at the moment. I’m pretty sure most would view it as racist.
DeleteIn a way, the reptile propaganda has worked, not by selling us the actual proposition, but by desensitising us to just how utterly bonkers the whole idea is.
Well you gotta admit that the Chinese are showing once again the model they provided for the British to learn how to own and run an empire. Except that the Chinese have very rarely waged active war: they've preferred to show massive force and thus to impose suzerainty.
DeleteBut then, they might just fight if they have to; their run-in with the Japanese in the 1930s might just have taught them that.
Something I didn't know: "Contrary to conventional wisdom, large stores of natural hydrogen may exist all over the world, like oil and gas—but not in the same places. These researchers say water-rock reactions deep within the Earth continuously generate hydrogen, which percolates up through the crust and sometimes accumulates in underground traps. There might be enough natural hydrogen to meet burgeoning global demand for thousands of years, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) model that was presented in October 2022 at a meeting of the Geological Society of America."
ReplyDelete"In February 2021, when South Australia expanded its oil regulations to allow drilling for hydrogen, Titus pounced. That same month, he submitted an application to explore nearly 8000 square kilometers on the Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. He created two other paper companies to lodge applications on thousands more square kilometers. Within weeks, he had competitors. “A bunch of other businesses got wind of it,” he says. Now, South Australia is in the middle of a hydrogen boom."
https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel
What with that and RMIT, we can have bulk hydrogen and keep stepping on the gas:
DeleteHow to make hydrogen straight from seawater – no desalination required
https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comments/2023/feb/hydrogen-seawater