In which a bunch of reptile second stringers hit the couch, including the swishing Switzer, the Bjørn-again one, and the lizard Oz editorialist ...

 

Some days the pond feels like a psychiatrist, required to listen to the saucy doubts and fears of the reptiles, with weekends a special time for clamouring alarm.

Take Dame Slap, please, someone take her.

She's settled on her latest jihad, and so she's at Juliar again, albeit just a way to have yet another burst of transphobic bigotry ... and not being a caring shrink, the pond decided to evict her from the couch and send her to the intermittent archive ...

Julia Knew. She owes Australian women an apology
Women are women, and Julia Gillard owes them all an apology
What does Julia Gillard know now that she didn’t in 2013: that a woman is a woman? That women are entitled to their own spaces?
By Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist

How the reptiles hate TG folk, and the pond is aware that sometimes, confronted by gender uncertainty in the wild, have had a nervous breakdown in the presence of a hermaphrodite. Stay away from tunicates, mollusks and especially earthworms...

What else? Well there was more fear and alarm with a bit of Bita ...

EXCLUSIVE
Explorer’s journals censored at top university
Journals of explorer Edward Eyre censored at University of Sydney
An Oxford historian has compared Australia’s cancel culture to the Soviet Union and the Third Reich, after a university library redacted freely available 181-year-old explorer journals on ‘cultural safety’ grounds.
By Natasha Bita

What a howling and gnashing of teeth and stern words about "virtue signalling".

The pond finally reached the end and thought it was a bit of a storm in a shrink's teacup...

...The University of Sydney spokeswoman said on Friday that Professor Goldman was given “full access to digitised versions for research, and the physical items remain intact and available for scholarly use under appropriate conditions.’’
She said online redaction was used in “limited case-by-case situations’’ for cultural, ethical or privacy reasons.
“It’s not a judgment on the historical value of the material and doesn’t limit access to the original works for legitimate research,’’ the spokeswoman said.

Steady on, all them tribal secrets belong us white folk...

And so to the first patient pouring out his heart and his devotion...

The header: Why this proud Australian will always believe in the American experiment;Yes, there’s a gulf between the nation’s ideals and its conduct, yet the country’s capacity for self-correction still remains unmatched.

The caption for the weird collage, sans any credit, suggesting no human hand was involved in the production of  this monstrosity: My affection for America runs deeper than nostalgia and popular culture.

Wonder Woman as the central focus? A woman who is notoriously the biological daughter of the Greek god Zeus, and so who's actual gender identity must be uncertain. Some think she might be the daughter of Hades, who is said to have helped Hippolyta mould her from clay. Can she be called a woman at all, though it might well be a wonder? Careful, Dame Slap is on the prowl, and might well take a view.

Not to worry, the trick here is to avoid mentioning mad King Donald and the current state of the disunited states, and the swishing Switzer shows a singular ability at this task.

I’m a proud Australian. But I also love America. I was born in Dallas and remain a diehard Cowboys NFL fan. My Texan father served as a marine in Vietnam and, while on R&R in Sydney, met my Australian mother at a Kings Cross pub.
My favourite beer is Samuel Adams Boston Lager and I have a congenital weakness for American fast food.
For more than three decades I’ve scarcely missed a day reading The Wall Street Journal editorial pages. For my sins, I also read – gasp! – the more left-liberal New York Times.
My favourite job (apart, of course, from editing The Australian’s opinion pages) was at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute. My dream getaway is lovely, misty little Annapolis, Maryland, with its cobbled streets, cosy bars and home of the US Naval Academy (where my Australian father-in-law once served on exchange).
I proudly wear Richard Nixon ties, and my office and home are decorated with presidential busts and 40 framed American political cartoons. Crikey, my first crush was Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter: “in your satin tights, fighting for your rights and the old red, white and blue”. And I never miss a Super Bowl!

Dear sweet long absent lord, he wears tricky Dick ties? While the reptiles paused for snap of a form of football largely ignored by the rest of the world, shades of Black Sunday ...The Seattle Seahawks celebrate their 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LX.

...the pond headed off to relive some favourite tricky Dick/peace prize winner moments...

That felt better and now for the swishing Switzer running deep, but not so silent ...

But my affection for America runs deeper than nostalgia and popular culture. It is also philosophical.
I have long agreed with Ronald Reagan’s observation that the American Revolution was “the only true philosophical revolution in all history”. Writing about Independence Day in 1981, the Gipper argued that while other revolutions merely replaced one ruling class with another, the American Revolution transformed the very idea of government itself.
That is why the 250th anniversary of the Fourth of July is such a remarkable celebration. Americans commemorate not merely their independence but also the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, principally drafted by that great man of the Enlightenment Thomas Jefferson: liberty, equality of opportunity and government deriving its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. They celebrate those ideals not simply to honour the past but to recommit themselves to them.

Philosophy? The pond thinks it might be psychological. It certainly involves memory loss about the way things are at the moment.

The reptiles were also careful to ignore mad King Donald in their selection of cheap snaps, John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence (1817–1819) depicts the presentation of the draft document to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776.

That inspired the swishing Switzer to more celebration and more avoidance ...

No serious observer would deny the gulf that has often existed between America’s ideals and its conduct. Slavery and segregation all testify to that. Yet the significance of the Fourth of July is precisely that it reminds Americans that their founding principles remain standards by which they judge themselves, and aspirations that remain unfinished.
None of this is to disguise or excuse America’s shortcomings. The foreign policy setbacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and, more recently, Iran, mounting public debt and chronic deficits, growing political polarisation and an increasingly more multipolar world have all dented American confidence.
We’ve been here before. With the end of the Cold War nearly four decades ago, there were, as the godfather of American neoconservatism, Irving Kristol, warned, “clear signs of rot and decay germinating in American society”. And distinguished British historian Paul Kennedy wrote his thesis on American decline that made him famous among the elites.
Yet 35 years since the collapse of Soviet communism, America remains globally dominant in technology and artificial intelligence, the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, and the leader of global growth: whereas in 1990, at the height of the unipolar moment, the US economy accounted for 40 per cent of the G7 GDP, today it’s nearly 60 per cent.
Jefferson understood that liberty begins in the mind. Once governments acquire the power to police opinion or punish dissent, every other freedom is placed at risk. That insight, central to the American founding, deserves to be remembered on this Fourth of July as much as any other.

The pond began to develop a diagnosis of latent schizophrenia ... I keep returning to Martin Luther King’s enduring appeal that America should be judged not by the standards of others but by its own magnificent promises.

Uh huh...

...Many black leaders, including Martin Luther King, Sr., and Jackie Robinson, initially supported Nixon’s 1960 bid for the presidency. Blacks believed Nixon to be more committed to civil rights reform than President Eisenhower had been, but the attitudes of black voters shifted during the final days of the 1960 presidential campaign. In October 1960 King was sentenced to four months in jail for violating his probation after participating in an Atlanta sit-in. After encouragement from Harris Wofford and other advisors, Nixon’s opponent, John F. Kennedy, phoned Coretta Scott King to convey his sympathy. King expressed disappointment that, despite his previously warm relationship with Nixon, “When this moment came, it was like he had never heard of me.” King believed Nixon’s inaction made him appear as “a moral coward and one who was really unwilling to take a courageous step and take a risk” (King, 9 March 1964). Kennedy’s phone call and his campaign’s discreet publicity promoting his role in releasing King from jail gained him the support of many black voters, and he defeated Nixon by less than one percent of the popular vote.

Give that man a moral coward tricky Dick neck tie, for the lynching thereof ...

There are times when America seems to fall short of that ideal. Last year, for example, an Australian writer was detained and ultimately deported after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. US officials reportedly questioned him at length about articles he had written on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and protests at Columbia University before refusing him entry. Whatever the merits of his views, the episode raised uncomfortable questions about freedom of expression in a nation that has long presented itself as the world’s foremost defender of free speech.
Yet I keep returning to Martin Luther King’s enduring appeal that America should be judged not by the standards of others but by its own magnificent promises, set out in the Declaration of Independence. In that same spirit, Bill Clinton declared on his first day as president: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

Slick Willie, is there a blow job in the house? America recovered from the civil war, the Depression and, eventually, the trauma of Vietnam and Watergate.

Sssh, don't mention Iran or those pesky straits.

The swishing Switzer quickly wound down, with not one mention of the heroics of mad King Donald's fair, nor the way that former Olympians had ravaged and ruined a reflecting pool designed to be a central part of the celebrations ...
One of the most remarkable features of American history has been the nation’s extraordinary capacity for self-correction. It recovered from the civil war, the Depression and, eventually, the trauma of Vietnam and Watergate with a resilience unmatched by other great powers.
Whether it can do so again in the face of a rising China and toxic political polarisation at home may be the defining political question of our age.
America has never been perfect. It never will be. But few nations have shown a greater capacity to acknowledge their failures, renew themselves and strive, however imperfectly, towards their founding ideals. That is why, despite everything, this proud Australian will always have a soft spot for the American experiment.
Happy Fourth of July!
Tom Switzer hosts the podcast Switzerland.

That's got to be worth a 'toon or two ...

Meanwhile, as the official paper for One Nation and Pauline, the reptiles were wildly excited by their latest poll...

Labor and Anthony Albanese on the slide in three states, Newspoll finds
Prime Minister’s net approval rating has collapsed in every key state as One Nation’s record surge rewrites Australian political allegiances.
By Geoff Chambers

In fact Geoff chambered several rounds at the top of the digital edition ...

Do you slowly’: Labor’s old plan to defeat new enemy One Nation
‘Do you slowly’: Labor’s plan to crush One Nation
Gearing up for a 2028 election, the PM takes a leaf from Paul Keating’s script in his plan to wrest votes from One Nation as support for Pauline Hanson’s party surges to a record high.
By Geoff Chambers
Political editor

That seemed to be the motto for the dog botherer.

You see, the reptiles have been doing the government quickly for the way it has allegedly produced a slump in real estate prices, a key way to introduce some affordability into the market.

But the dog botherer has discovered a weird kind of affinity with long-suffering vulgar youff ...no, strike that, with the already entitled doomed to suffer ...

Debt trap: the crushing reality of trying to buy your first home
Crushing reality of buying a home: dream traps young in a debt nightmare
Labor has subsidised hundreds of thousands of Australians into homes it is now helping make less valuable, with experts warning a property crash is not out of the question.
By Chris Kenny
Associate Editor (National Affairs)

Enough already, given the recent heat in Europe and the current heat in the disunited States, the pond wanted to sit a patient in the couch and discuss climate change, and who better than the Bjørn-again one?

The header: WHO misleads public with cherrypicked climate data; The world’s peak health body has used European heat death figures that exaggerate the true risk more than 50-fold.

The caption for the poetic image of the sun beating down: European heat death risk has risen 82 per cent since 1990. But heat mortality risk rises sharply with age and Europe has aged dramatically. Picture: AFP

Indeed, indeed, who cares if some oldies shuffle off in the heat, they were going to die anyway, so let them wilt.

Unfortunately the Bjørn-again one is only willing to spend three or so minutes on the couch, but that was more than enough time for him to lather himself into a frenzy ...

At the start of the FIFA World Cup in North America, sensationalist headlines suggested climate change could make the games “the most dangerous ever” because of the heat. Of course the claim is absurd given that the previous tournament was played in much hotter conditions in Qatar, but it is an excellent example of the activist-driven climate alarm stories we see every summer.
Riding this wave, the World Health Organisation is again blurring the line between evidence-based public health and climate advocacy. A WHO commission made up of politicians and green advocates has urged the organisation to declare climate change a “public health emergency of international concern”.

Dammit, as if a few deaths made any difference to the joys of experiencing climate change ... cue an aV distraction, The World Health Organisation has attributed 1300 unexpected deaths across Europe to its record heatwave. National temperature records in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic were set on Sunday. France's Health Ministry says there have been 1000 more deaths than expected in the country since Wednesday.

And after that AV distraction, the Bjørn-again one was left to his own data-mangling devices, wherein all is well, and all will be well ...

This is a flashback to the 2010s when WHO’s director-general named climate change the most important health issue of the 21st century. Not long after, Covid arrived – and WHO’s preparedness and early response were found deeply wanting.
The lesson clearly was not learned. The WHO commission’s headline claim is that climate change poses a “catastrophic threat to human health”. Its key evidence comes from a Lancet study showing heat deaths in Europe are rising rapidly, reaching 63,000 a year. Even setting aside the peculiarity of a global health emergency built primarily on European data, the argument collapses under scrutiny.
European heat death risk has risen 82 per cent since 1990. But heat mortality risk rises sharply with age and Europe has aged dramatically. Since 1990, the share of the European population over 70 has increased by 78 per cent. Ageing alone explains virtually all of the observed increase in heat deaths. The study and the commission simply ignore this.
Any honest analysis of mortality would use age-standardised death rates that make figures comparable over time. The WHO report makes no such adjustment.
The Global Burden of Disease, the leading mortality database, does. It shows that Europe’s age-standardised heat death risk has changed only marginally since 1990. Adjusted to reflect today’s population size and age distribution, the increase amounts to fewer than 850 additional heat deaths. The WHO commission’s figures exaggerate the problem more than 50-fold.
The deeper dishonesty lies in what the report omits. As temperatures rise, heat deaths increase but cold deaths fall. Cold deaths far outnumber heat deaths on every continent. Using the age-standardised methodology that reveals minimal heat death increases, cold death rates in Europe have nearly halved since 1990. At today’s population levels, that translates to about 210,000 fewer cold deaths each year. The WHO commission conceals the fact cold deaths have declined by about 250 times as much as heat deaths have risen.
The report’s second big claim is that climate change in Europe has made more Europeans food insecure. This strains credulity. Real food insecurity lies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The claim also ignores UN projections showing the world on track for record cereal production. If the WHO commission were genuinely concerned about the world’s hungry, it would lead with those facts.
There is a cruel irony in the commission’s prescription. Climate policies have already made electricity three to four times costlier for consumers in Europe than in the US and China, and more than a third of all Europeans now say they can’t afford airconditioning. Making even more aggressive emissions cuts would raise energy costs further, making heatwaves even deadlier for those who cannot afford airconditioning and prolonged cold deadlier for those who cannot afford heating.
Higher energy prices also raise the cost of fertiliser and mechanised farming, pushing more people in developing countries into hunger. The prescribed cure is worse than the disease.
The WHO director who convened the commission writes that “our citizens expect urgency from us” as though he were an elected politician rather than a health official. What global citizens expect from doctors is honest, evidence-based counsel. They do not expect clinical authority to be borrowed for political purposes or public alarm to be manufactured by omitting data that would defuse it.
WHO exists to prevent disease and protect human health. Declaring a climate emergency on the basis of cherrypicked, misleading statistics will not protect the most vulnerable. It will erode the organisation’s credibility further, divert attention and resources from real threats and lend political cover to costly policies that harm the people WHO claims to champion.
Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and author of False Alarm and Best Things First.

Yes, air-conditioning is the way forward, and while Bjørn-again one is coy about it - he doesn't once mention the life-giving power of coal - it's clear to many reptiles that these A/Cs should be run on dinkum, virginal, clean Oz coal. 

Now that'll fix the planet and what ails it ...

And so to a special treat. 

After consigning a few reptiles to fill up the pond's meditative Sunday, the pond decided to use the lizard Oz editorialist as couch filler.

Here you will find the distilled essence of darkness, the sort of analysis that defies treatment by any form of psychiatry ...

With the lizard Oz editorialist simpering like a swishing Switzer, that's got to be worth a few more 'toons ...

And there was also this ...

And yet ...he really did think he was a great man ...urging punters to judge him soberly and fairly ...

And lastly the lizard Oz editorialist was inevitably indignant, and it took quite a bit to get the anon scribbler from pacing about in an agitated manner, and head back to the couch for a bleat ...

Third Reich?

But surely Adolf was a great man, who needed to be judged fairly and soberly?

What an excellent set of distractions, while the looting and the rorting goes on apace ...

All's well, and will continue to be well ...