In which the Caterist and the Major do their usual black knight impressions in brave culture wars ...

 

So the pond was watching a Finnish production of Turandot the other day (it's amazing what you can find on YouTube), and began thinking it was a rum sort of do.

Here's the sweet young slave, full of undying love and amazing sacrifice, but she has to off herself in the third act to help save her beloved master. It's true that Puccini gives her a nice song to send her on her way, but to what avail? She's done herself in for a female sociopath with a body count too big to put a number on, and for an arrogant, self-serving, patriarch who just wants to make the sociopath submit, because she's showing alarming signs of feminist thinking (as you'd expect of feminist sociopaths). He doesn't even seem to mind that his blind, long suffering daddy is now without his faithful companion Liù. Sure, Calaf sings a song of sorrow, but guilt assuaged, he stays on the make for the ice maiden.

Moral of the story? As usual, it's the hapless lumpenproletariat that cops the lumps, while the other pair get to sing at end of show of undying love and glory. No wonder Puccini had trouble finishing it. Two most unattractive leads and the heroic worker done down. It's enough to make the pond turn Marxist. Even cultural Marxist and fully woke. 

What's the pond talking about? Not a clue. Even Rex Huppke couldn't offer a clue: 

Asked to define “woke” this month, DeSantis said: “Look, we know what woke is, it’s a form of cultural Marxism.” 
You can’t define a word that means nothing with a term that also means nothing. That’s like me saying, “Well, we know what flarpitude is, it’s a form of horticultural Taoism.”

What's that? Too off topic? The pond should return to its herpetological studies? But that's more than enough to make the pond turn cultural Marxist, and the pond has never been one for Marxism.

Speaking of horticultural Taoism, the self-regarding swill of pompous 'leet Surry Hills swine is populated by Calafs and the odd Turandot (the pond fancies Dame Slap in the role if she had a singing voice as opposed to a feral, sociopathic keyboard), and you'd have to look long and hard to find a selfless Liù.

They were at it again, with yet another excuse to feature the Lehrmann matter (and naturally find an excuse to run a snap of Higgins in the revolving fickle of visual fate, though there was also Lidia to demonise):

An immediate red card, even as cackling Claire tried to wrest the role of Turandot from Dame Slap.

And there were more red cards awarded in the comments section.

Simplistic Simon and Shanners the bouffant one still at it, with a bonus dollop of former plot Terry Goldsworthy? 

The pond can't begin to count the accumulating ironies, whether it's a loon talking of baying mobs, in a rag full of a baying mob, or simpleton Simon moaning "no one wins", while the reptiles have been busy losing, and there's the bouffant one blathering about skeletons, in a rag full of dust and bones ...

And the lot of them white and male.

But why note that? Well, the Caterist was doing a tryout for the Calaf role, and the pond had to suffer through the audition, though the pond did wonder if you could only get a gig at the lizard Oz if you were white and male, or a woman doing a Turandot ...

It goes without saying that the Caterist doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, and nor does the pond. 

Anyone who can start off a piece with "We will probably never know" is certainly destined for a grand career as a floodwaters in quarries whisperer ... or perhaps ideally placed to source the Covid virus ... or perhaps to scribble about climate science. We will probably never know ...

It did however give the reptiles a chance to promote the ABC ...

Enough of that, we're in the land of idle, meaningless speculation, and wretched blather ...

Why does the pond persist? Well every so often the  Caterist comes up with a gem, this time the use of "identitarianism".

The pond headed off to check out its meaning and came across this wiki listing about the identitarian movement ...

The Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a pan-European, ethno-nationalist, far-right political ideology asserting the right of European ethnic groups and white peoples to Western culture and territories claimed to belong exclusively to them. Originating in France as Les Identitaires ("The Identitarians"), with its youth wing Generation Identity, the movement expanded to other European countries during the early 21st century. Its ideology was formulated from the 1960s onward by essayists such as Alain de Benoist, Dominique Venner, Guillaume Faye and Renaud Camus, who are considered the main ideological sources of the movement.

Identitarians promote concepts such as pan-European nationalism, localism, ethnopluralism, remigration, or the Great Replacement, and they are generally opposed to globalisation, multiculturalism, Islamization and extra-European immigration. Influenced by New Right metapolitics, they do not seek direct electoral results, but rather to provoke long-term social transformations and eventually achieve cultural hegemony and popular adhesion to their ideas.

Some Identitarians explicitly espouse ideas of xenophobia and racialism, but most limit their public statements to more docile language. Strongly opposed to cultural mixing, they promote the preservation of homogeneous ethno-cultural entities, generally to the exclusion of extra-European migrants and descendants of immigrants. In 2019, the Identitarian Movement was classified by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing extremist.

The movement is most notable in Europe, and although rooted in Western Europe, it has spread more rapidly to the eastern part of the continent through conscious efforts of the likes of Faye. It also has adherents among white nationalists in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.The United States–based Southern Poverty Law Center considers many of these organisations to be hate groups.

Head to the wiki for the footnotes; head to the Caterist for a new Humpty Dumpty use of the word, proving yet again that words will mean what the Caterist wants them to mean ...

Indeed, indeed, what a splendid curmudgeon, churl and bigot he is, and Kudelka in the Saturday Paper had just the right cartoon for that wail ...

And so to the Major, and the good news is that it seems the Caterist missed the point by focussing on the ABC. The Graudian is the new enemy, and the Major was in the front line...

Think coal? Think Major, think climate science denialism, or better still, don't bother thinking. As with the Caterist, the flailing graphics department tried to help out with a snap of smirking deviants ...

And then it was back on with the Major insights, which amazingly turned into a regurgitation of the assorted opinions of others, anyone other than mortal enemy Graudian, even good old Ross Gittins ...

Is that the very same climate alarmist Ross Gittins who back in February this year furiously scribbled ...

...It’s the global scale of the problem that makes our efforts actually to increase our exports of coal and gas so irresponsible – and, to our offspring, unforgivable. We’re the world’s third-largest exporter of fossil fuels, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Australia’s emissions within our borders are dwarfed by the emissions from the coal and gas we export. But never mind about that. Let’s just extract a few more shekels before the balloon goes up.

Never mind about all that, the Major is more adept at cherry picking than he is at Order of Lenin medal hunting, and there's a new villain in town and she copped a huge snap ...

As for the rest, the Major topped himself by showing a most excellent display of narcissistic belly-gazing and fluff-gathering by quoting "Ned" ...

Reptiles quoting reptiles? Well when you live in an insular bubble and are part of the hive mind, it's the natural order of things ...

Indeed, indeed, or you could quote Ross Gittins ...

While I was on holiday, I noticed a tweet that left me in no doubt about the subject of my first column back. It said: “I genuinely think the next generation will not forgive us for what we have done to them and the world they will have to live in.”

I, too, fear they won’t. I don’t know whether our political leaders ever think such thoughts, but it fills me with dread. Maybe the pollies think what I reluctantly think: With any luck, I’ll be dead before the next generation realises the full extent of the hell our selfish short-sightedness has left them in.

But the climate seems to be deteriorating so rapidly I’m not sure I’ll get off that easily. I love my five grandkids, but I’m not looking forward to the day they’re old enough to quiz me on “what I did in the war”. What was I saying and doing while our leaders were going for decades kicking the problem down the road as the easiest way to get re-elected?

“Well, I was very busy writing about the shocking cost of living – oh, and rising interest rates.” Really? Is that the best excuse you can offer, Grandad?

Of course that's assuming you care about the planet, but the Major will always be big on coal and nuking the place ...

Luckily the pond gets its economics from the immortal Rowe ...

And now please forgive the pond for a personal indulgence. After the burst of reptile religiosity on the weekend, the full Catholic rag as it were, the pond remembered that it had promised itself a Harry Potter moment the next time it saw J. K. Rowling featured in the lizard Oz ...

It so happened that glancing down the page on the weekend the pond saw a snap ...

Sure it was a few days old and immensely stupid, but it was a grand excuse for the pond to remind the reptiles that they were playing with fire ... and that their very souls, and eternity in the nineteenth hole golf club was at stake.

The Catholic church long ago deemed J. K. Rowling a dangerous Satanist, as you can read here, from way back in 2002 ...

"North America's coverage downplays priest's warnings."

In early December, Rome's official exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, warned parents against the Harry Potter book series. The priest, who is also the president of the International Association of Exorcists, said Satan is behind the works. In an interview with the Italian ANSA news agency, Rev. Amorth said, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil."

The exorcist, with his decades of experience in directly combating evil, explained that J.K. Rowling's books contain innumerable positive references to magic, "the satanic art." He noted that the books attempt to make a false distinction between black and white magic, when in fact, the distinction "does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil."

In the interview which was published in papers across Europe, Father Amorth also criticized the disordered morality presented in Rowling's works, noting that they suggest that rules can be contravened and lying is justified when they work to one's benefit.

Of note, the North American coverage of Fr. Amorth's warnings about Potter significantly downplayed the warnings. The New York Times coverage by Melinda Henneberger which was carried in Canada's National Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and on Yahoo Daily News left out most of the information in the European coverage which is quoted above. It only quoted Father Amorth as saying that "If children can see the movie with their parents, it's not all bad." The Times report also fails to mention that the movie version has significantly cleaned up Harry's image, making it less troublesome than the books.

And  there was this, from 3rd September  2006:

Pope's top exorcist says Harry Potter is 'king of darkness'

Pope Benedict XVI's chief exorcist, Rev. Gabriele Amorth,has called fictional wizard-in-training Harry Potter the "king of darkness, the devil."

Amorth made the statement about the star of the best-selling children's series by British author J. K. Rowling during an interview with Vatican Radiod uring the week.

"Magic is always a turn to the devil," said the Roman Catholic priest, according to Britain's Daily Mail newspaper.

Amorth, who is also the president of the International Association of Exorcists, said the series contains many positive references to "the satanic art" of magic and makes no distinction between black and white magic.

The Harry Potter series has sold more than 300 million copies worldwide and four of the bookhave been made into films.

Rowling has revealed that two main characters will die in the seventh and last instalment, due to be published soon. It's expected to include a showdown between the teen wizard and his malevolent nemesis, Lord Voldemort.

"A price has to be paid, we are dealing with pure evil here," Rowling said during a British chat show interview.

Amorth compared the Potter character to dictators Stalin and Hitler, saying they were possessed by the devil.

"You can tell by their behavior and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons," said Amorth, who has reportedly performed 30,000 exorcisms.

Pope also slammed Potter

Amorth's criticisms of Potter weren't the first to emerge from the Catholic Church, which has never been a fan of the series.

Benedict voiced his disapproval of the character and series before he became Pope in April 2005.

Then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, he wrote a supportive letter in 2005 to the author of a book Harry Potter - Good or Evil? In it, sociologist Gabriele Kuby had argued that Harry Potter series distorts young people's ideas about the battle of good versus evil.

"It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly," Ratzinger told Kuby in his letter.

Who knew the lizard Oz was full of Satanists and Satan lovers?

Who knew that we're probably better off with AI than with a lizard Oz scribbler?

Okay, okay, it was all just an elaborate ploy so that the pond could finish with this tasty Rowe ...