Bitter regrets at astonishing sacrifices arising from sticking to the lizard Oz?
Sometimes the pond has a few, perhaps too many to mention ... what fragile beauty, what tender moment, what Pythonish juxtaposition, was lost to the pond for all eternity by not being able to embrace gorgeous George and share his devotion?
Plain-spoken appeal from a manly man cutting through ...and yet was it not Kipling himself who said that a brave heart and a courteous tongue would carry stout-hearted souls far through the jungle, and so the pond must abandon George, leave his plain-speaking tent, and move on to familiar fields ...
Hang on a 'mo, what else before turning to the usual day with the reptiles of the lizard Oz?
Well the pond woke to the news that the WMO was at it again ... Preliminary data shows hottest week on record. Unprecedented sea surface temperatures and Antarctic sea ice loss
Dammit, if only they'd listen to the Major and take a nuanced view of things. What's this constant talk of new records and uncharted territory? Nuance please, a little nuance ...
And so to a new trend, which is an old trend, but new again.
For a time the pond had thought that "woke" had taken the reptile world by storm and "Orwellian" - that constant invoking of a devout socialist - had been dismissed from the lexicon. But you can't keep a good socialist down, and the lizard Oz editorialist was in fine form ...
Inspirational stuff, and just as a barking mad Trumpian judge had set off Killer, he'd also set off the lizard Oz editorialist, and Captain Potato's crew were up for the game...
But what of the lizard Oz editorialist? Had the pond sold a false bill of goods? Sorry, the pond held back the last par for effect, and lo, instead of "woke", the old Orwellian socialist was in pride of place ...
Yes, a nuanced view please. It's far less Orwellian simply to disappear news and do an Amish shunning, and then the readership won't get agitated by all this Orwellian talk of something wrong with the climate ...
And so on to the real meat, and here the pond decided to punish devotees of Dame Groan by making them wait.
The bromancer had important things to say, and having missed the bro on the weekend, now seemed the right time to give the bro an outing ...
Ah, the old Xian routine, not a bug but a reliable bromancer feature, but here the pond must pause a moment so that it can celebrate a positive contribution by clap happy Xian ... per the infallible Pope ...
An infallible Pope so early in the piece? Sorry the pond just wanted to have a celebratory Hillsong moment before proceeding ... clap your hands at mission accomplished ...
At this point the reptiles decided to insert an image celebrating their usual colonial triumphalism ...
The pond thought it would have been more amusing to insert a chart from the 2021 census ...
And there was this in the 2016 census ...
Downward curves everywhere ...no wonder the bro is having a hard time, no wonder he's lashing out, it's almost too much for a fundamentalist Catholic bigot to bare (bear if you will, but the pond does like the notion of the bromancer baring it all)...
... says the wildly speculating bro, making light of the history of Aboriginal suffering and persecution, while the rancid remains of the lizard Oz graphics department decided this was the perfect moment to slip in a snap trading off on traditional fare ...
And then it was back to the bromancer splitting hairs about the size of the massacre, though none of this is remotely to denigrate Aboriginal people, whatever you might read that denigrates Aboriginal people...
The pond imagines that the booklet also fails to praise amazing displays of grace ...
Instead the corpse of the lizard Oz graphics department, now in advanced rigor mortis, decided to bring back a snap of former Chairman Rudd ...
What to make of all this? Why it's a Marxist plot ... you can't be a child of B. A. Santamaria without seeing devious Marxists everywhere ...
Actually whatever happens, the pond suspects that the bromancer won't be forced to do anything outside his usual displays of fear mongering and bigotry, not to mention his way with words, such as "crackers" and "madness" ...
Remember this?
It's called projection ... and when you're crackers, calling others crackers is by far the best way to project, to dissemble, to destroy and generate bitter polarisation ... and anybody who disagrees is clearly a Marxist ...
And so to those Dame Groan devotees who lasted through all that, to the usual Tuesday groaning ...
Indeed, indeed, there's nothing like serious errors to show you're doing your job well ... but luckily the pond had sensed this would be a tough gig, and had held in reserve an infallible Pope for the occasion ...
That's how the pond likes to do its economic analysis, but Dame Groan is a stats wonk and will shortly get into the wonkery ...
The pond realises that the pond had promised some conclusive figures, but first there's an unseemly contribution from the tattered remains of the lizard Oz graphics department, huge until the pond took the necessary downsizing step ...
The pond also began to wonder if the serves of Dame Groan might be more digestible if reduced to small chunks ...
Nope, just rumours and hearsay and idle speculation, but at last some dinkum figures to show that we'll all be rooned, and possibly by Xmas ... quite likely economic catastrophe of some kind is lurking in the arras ...
At this point the zombie-like lizard Oz graphics department did a Carrie and a hand lurched from the grave and inserted a huge shot of a fiendish comrade Bill, designed to send the readership into a frenzy or a fainting fit ...
And so to a final, mercifully short gobbet ...
Cult devotees of a good groaning can't complain. The pond has done its job and served up Dame Groan, and it's not the pond's fault that it ended with more of a whimper than a bang, and a mix of doves and cards - anyone for 500? - but looking on the bright side, this week it was NDIS to cop it, when at a time of nuance, surely renewables should have been in Dame Groan's sights ...
And now because the pond can't help itself, a bromancer bonus to the bromancer, because at time of writing, the bro was top of the digital page ma ...
So far so good, with the Germans to hand to join the bro's war with China by Xmas ...
Hmm, that's pretty black and white, but after the next gobbet the pond will reveal its true purpose in going with the bonus ...
Only the bromancer could write "helping to develop and evolve Germany's strategic personality", but now to the final gobbet and the pond's confession ...
And here the pond must confess that the sole and entire purpose of offering that bromancer bonus was as a set-up for an immortal Rowe, so that the pond might end with a relevant cartoon, and that's more than enough of all that for a Tuesday. It's been a long time since the pond has heard a hearty Zegna joke ...
Every Australian with a speck of humanity wants uplift and advancement for Aboriginal people, writes a man implacably opposed to the Voice proposal. Once in a while, the Bro manages - totally unwittingly - to produce comedy gold. I’m still trying to decide which is more entertaining - the Bro in hysterical enthusiasm mode, gushing about some wondrous, incredibly expensive military hardware or calling for war by Xmas, or his barking-mad, foam-flecked outrage performances such as his citizenship booklet rant.
ReplyDeleteSurely though he’s failed to cover the most important point - is due reverence still paid to Don Bradman’s batting average?
For exemplary, Who's-on-First Greg: "Thanks to internal reforms and the benefits associated with globalization, China’s GDP has also increased exponentially by about 3000 percent in the past 30 years. As a result, China’s economy is now 20 percent larger than the US in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) and in 2020 became the world’s largest exporter (14.7 percent of global exports vis-à-vis 8 percent for the United States)." - 'Strategic Shifts and NATO’s new Strategic Concept', NDC Research Paper No. 24, June 2022, p.13.
DeleteSo The Australian is of the opinion that a democratically elected government cannot instruct its officials to ensure that misinformation and disinformation will not be given to the public, but that unelected journalists and commentators like Greg Sheridan, Judith Sloan, Chris Mitchell, Nick Cater, Peta Credlin, and others should be able to spread whatever information, whether true or not, to the public, as long as it serves the interests of News Corp.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment anon, The Murdocracy has been spreading misinformation for years and have used their influence to push propaganda and illegal wars by America for decades they are curse on the world. As for Sheridans claims for christianity being the foundation of Australia he might need to see what is happening to the attendance at the catholic mass as was pointed out to me that when the old people have passed on who is going to take their place because no young people are attending in the same numbers as was happening in earlier part of the 20 century.
DeleteThe culture change that is happening in Australia will keep changing the religious demographic and reduce the influence on how the population follows religious belief.
Sheridan makes a statement the Jesus is the son of god try telling that to the Indians and chinese descent who are now a large and increasing numbers of our population.
We now know why little Johnny promoted and increased the funding for religious schools as he could see that religion was less important to society and he saw this as a way to increase their influence.
Keating is correct when he says we do not need Europe influence in ASIA as we as Australians are in ASIA and we cannot change that and we should not get involved in
America's hegemony to increase the spread of NATO to the Russian border.
Err but, Anony, NATO has been right up to the Russian border for quite some time. You are aware that Estonia and Latvia have borders with Russia, and Lithuania and Poland have borders with Belarus.
DeleteAnd that when Finland has joined NATO which it is currently doing, it too will have a long border with Russia. But the old USSSR invaded Finland quite a few years ago, and was quickly repelled,
GB. Thank you for your correction and my lack of geographic knowledge on Europe.
DeleteBoth Russia and the USA are fighting a proxy war through other countries as is the case in the middle east.
I have lost faith in a just world because of the misinformation that is spread by news agencies and their ackalites. Look at recent history of the Korean war,Vietnam and the more recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq with lies that lead to the invasion of a country that had been supported by America in earlier conflicts with Iran.
My question, is it possible to have diplomacy to replace conflict because human life is not important when American arms manufacture can see profits.
They even sacrifice their own citizens when a profit is to be made.
Loon pond is usually my first log on in the mornings and sometimes feel I need to comment on a topic that is of interest to me the comment section is also interesting to read.
King Lear was speaking of Marxism? What foresight Shakespeare had. Actually, Lear was expressing his sorrow at his daughters’ mean and cruel actions and deciding that contemplating what they had done would send him mad. Perhaps contemplating what British colonialism and those who followed and supported it did to Aboriginal people has sent Greg mad?
ReplyDeleteNo doubt many a sane reader could be sent mad contemplating Greg’s ramblings.
Sheridan expects a secular government booklet – it’s not a comprehensive history of Australia – to mention all religious contributions, but especially Christianity. He’s lucky it doesn’t mention the child sexual abuse scandal.
Then he misinforms by conflating tribal conflict between Aboriginal groups with the destruction of Aboriginal society, their loss of sovereignty over their lands and their traditional religion replaced by Christian missionaries. The Aboriginal people of the island state of Tasmania were wiped out. Genocide is a little different to the usual rules of war. Wiki has a list of the UN’s definition of the five acts of genocide: “killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.”
Dorothy - speaking for the cult of the Dame Groan, we thank you for giving us her words for this day. Particularly as she seems to be slipping more and more into putting those words down like an Oracle (and, remember, most of the Oracles were considered female)
ReplyDeleteThus she is able, under a heading 'Why new RBA boss must stand up to Labor', to tell us that 'At this stage it's critical that both the government and the bank are on the same page.'
If that meant that those of the current board of the RBA, who were appointed largely for their services to the coalition, would offer their resignations, to be replaced by a board with wider personal experience, some commitment to the legislated objectives of the RBA, and (we can hope) practical understanding of how 'business' actually responds to the levers of national economic management - then they could be on the same page, which, I think, our Oracle sees as singing from the same hymn sheet.
With the current board, I am left wondering if they truly believed the recent period of cheap money would be taken up by business to improve efficiency and productivity in our national economy, or if they knew that those managing the businesses would go the way they did - but could be relied upon to praise the board in the mass media. I have not seen our Dame reflect seriously on the abilities, or the commitment, of the current board, and her review of the review of the bank merrely snipped at loose threads around the edges.
Neither will she, nor the Beefy Angus, concede that there is a significant component of this inflation due to businesses putting up their prices to take advantage of the inflationary mindset - 'everything seems to be going up, so we might do that as well.' Overall, yet another demonstration that the sum of individual decisions often is not the best collective decision.
But the cult could look forward to the Dame Groan becoming the Oracle Groan; some of us are not particularly good at cryptic crosswords, so cryptic columns might be the new sport.
Conrad calls it; "Neither will she, nor the Beefy Angus, concede that there is a significant component of this inflation due to businesses putting up their prices to take advantage of the inflationary mindset"
DeleteSignificant component = 45% inflatiin due to profits.
Euro Area Inflation after the Pandemic and Energy Shock: Import Prices, Profits and Wages
" we show that import prices account for 40 percent of the average change in the consumption deflator over 2022Q1 – 2023Q1, while domestic profits account for 45 percent. The increase in nominal profits was largest in sectors benefiting from increasing international commodity prices and those exposed to recent supply-demand mismatches. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2023/06/23/Euro-Area-Inflation-after-the-Pandemic-and-Energy-Shock-Import-Prices-Profits-and-Wages-534837
The pond loves the concept of the oracle ... each week Dame Groan divines and predicts doom as in ancient times:
DeleteWalter Burkert observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips the God speaks" are recorded in the Near East as in Mari in the second millennium BC and in Assyria in the first millennium BC.
And it's a very neat and tidy business ...
The oracle's powers were highly sought after and never doubted. Any inconsistencies between prophecies and events were dismissed as failure to correctly interpret the responses, not an error of the oracle. Very often prophecies were worded ambiguously, so as to cover all contingencies – especially so ex post facto. One famous such response to a query about participation in a military campaign was "You will go you will return never in war will you perish". This gives the recipient liberty to place a comma before or after the word "never", thus covering both possible outcomes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle
The oracular groaning has a real ring to it, in the sense of being ambiguous, enigmatic and hard to interpret ... as well as to hold forth in oracular fashion. Sold.
So really they were just the "influencers" of their time. Oracles to Croesus: "If you go to war, a mighty empire will fall". Yes, his.
DeleteSpeaking from the cult of Dame Groan, she has this to say: "[Inflation] has to be brought within the target range as soon as possible without inflicting undue short-term economic damage...". Yeah, right on there, sister. Just one question: who set this 'target range' and how did they work out that somehow "inflation" should perpetually lie between 2 and 3 per cent ? And if indeed it does so lie, how long does it take for costs and prices to double ? And what happens to wages and salaries ? So, for instance, petrol cost 8¢ per litre in 1960 and it cost $1.06 per litre (average) in 2020 - a 13.25 times increase in 60 years. Is that how economics works ?
Deletehttps://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/whatitcost/groceries
C'mon Groany, surely you must know the answers so please enlighten us.
In order to understand recursion, you must first understand recursion: https://theconversation.com/why-is-nato-expanding-its-reach-to-the-asia-pacific-region-209140 ; https://www.ndc.nato.int/about/organization.php?icode=159 .
ReplyDelete