The eleventh sign of hope ...

The Bolter proposes to pack up the tents, shut up, steal away into the night, until the new year.

Is there a better reason imaginable for Xmas and the holiday season?

Fat bloody chance.

You can't shut up the man. He's an inhuman robotic machine, and he keeps on churning:

And so on and so forth.

Uh huh.

How lucky we are that even over Xmas the Bolter is always on call.

Pond to Bolter, pond to Bolter.

Pond to Bolter, something's not right on the intertubes:

That report here, and that report by the NOAA, here.

The pond is utterly bereft. The preliminary data in, and the world's leading climate scientist packed his bags and gone on holiday.

What to do, what to make of it, without the firm guiding hand of the world's most expert climate scientist?

We need a sign, somewhere a sign, anywhere a sign, a helpful, calming sign that global warmism is dead.

Quick, someone a wooden stake, some holy water, a crucifix, plenty of garlic, don't forget the silver bullets, and please, please, someone get the Bolter on the line, so he can scribble The death of global warmism: November the hottest month on record, the eleventh sign of hope!

Sadly with the cat away the mice will play. Here's a game to play, and more First Dog here:

At last, liberation theology reaches the pond ...

Liberated, liberation, call it what you will, it's a curious concept:

Now on one level the pond understands. Abbott was searching for a form of words, a kindly way to exit proceedings, and reaching for 'liberated' was about as far as he could go. When you're a bear with very little brain and the honey pot is just out of reach, the odds of getting stuck in a verbal hole are high.

That it was deeply fatuous and required subbies to reach for inverted commas - 'liberated' - says a lot about the inner man.

It was as if he was at a funeral, and he turned to grieving widow or widower and said "look on the bright side, at least now you'll be liberated and able to pursue opportunities, without that silly old bugger/buggeress hanging around your neck, holding you back".

So in a bid to be consoling, this is what he said:

Mr Abbott has conceded that some workers will have difficulty finding new jobs. 
 "Some of them will find it difficult, but many of them will probably be liberated to pursue new opportunities and to get on with their lives," he said. 
 "We have to accept that what was right for people 10 years ago or 20 years ago is not necessarily going to be right or possible for them far into the future, and we do have to be prepared to adapt - individually and collectively." (here)

On the obvious level, it's risible.

Re-training isn't easy, and the far-fetched notion that with a wave of the hand, the 'liberated' will head off to mining jobs, or take up work in re-located federal government departments - all eager to be based in Adelaide - is just sky-hook dreaming.

The reality, as already shown in the exits of the likes of Mitsubishi and Ford, is that a substantial number will join the ranks of the long-term unemployed and an equally substantial number will get screwed over in the short-term, brutal, casual contract labour market.

But the pond doesn't deal with the obvious. What's more interesting is the way Abbott liberated the word, and mangled its use:

1. given liberty; freed; released 
1. To set free, as from oppression, confinement, or foreign control. 
3. (Sociology) (esp in feminist theory) not bound by traditional sexual and social roles 
2. liberated - free from traditional social restraints; "an emancipated young woman pursuing her career"; "a liberated lifestyle" (more at the dictionary here).

Yes, it's a most peculiar word, deeply embedded in the theology of the 1960s hippie. Work is such a drag, you see, and freedom from work is to be released from deep, dire oppression. And as a bonus you're able to pursue a liberated social lifestyle.

Never mind that you'll be in poverty, or stony-broke, skint, as they used to say, you'll be liberated, and Tim Wilson will be fighting hard for your freedom, not that you'll need him, because you'll have this enormous sense of liberation.

Not many paid much attention, but James Jeffrey, sheltered amongst the lizards at the Oz, did:

One of our favourite euphemisms in the hiring 'n' firing game is the concept of letting someone go. This makes it sound like an act of mercy, as if a boss has spotted an employee straining against their manacles and, in a fit of humanity, emancipated them. So we dips our lid to Tony Abbott for making his small but worthwhile contribution to the genre yesterday during his joint press conference with Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane: "Now, some of the Mitsubishi workers have struggled to find work, others have had, I suppose, almost a rebirth of their working lives and I dare say, it will be same for the people currently at Ford and Holden when manufacturing stops. Some of them will find it difficult, but many of them will probably be liberated to pursue new opportunities and to get on with their lives. (here, behind the paywall, because there's way too much liberation doing the rounds)

If you've ever been in the hiring and firing game, you'll know the look of joy on those just given a job, and the devastation of the eyes of someone who has just been given a bullet, just been sacked, just been dumped, just, it has to be said, told to fuck off because they are surplus to needs and requirements.

Handling it with any sensitivity is hard, but using "liberated to pursue new opportunities" is as callow as it gets, right up there with that fictional funeral director explaining that now you're free, and you can get on with that new life and that fourth marriage you've been longing to have a go at ... (well some like the pond love marriage so much they can never get enough of it).

Meanwhile, Christian Kerr is maintaining his relentless, awesome capacity for EXCLUSIVES:

In the usual way, the reptiles at the lizard Oz don't get it.

Wilson himself is busy pedalling away as fast as he can from political, ideological and theological divides as he found himself amongst the Fairfaxians:

He even took up the pond's Queensland challenge in Tim Wilson: As officialdom tries to dilute them, human rights must be defended:

A practical example is Wednesday's decision by the High Court on the rights of unions to donate to political parties. From a human rights perspective, the NSW laws preventing any collective of individuals seeking to speak through a common voice - unions, environmental groups, businesses and non-profits - from donating to a political party violated freedom of speech and association. 
To its credit the court unanimously struck down the NSW government's restrictions on the basis that they "impermissibly burden the implied freedom of communication on governmental and political matters, contrary to the Commonwealth constitution". 
The court's decision is important because it affirms the right to free political communication that the court found was implied in Australia's constitution two decades ago. 
Another is the Queensland government's recent anti-bikie gang laws, being adopted in other states. 
If bikies commit crimes the police should investigate and prosecute criminals. But from a human rights perspective it is entirely unjust that freedom of association should be squashed to make the job of the police easier to investigate. Rather than empowering police to prevent an already comprehensive list of crimes, these laws have created a host of new crimes that could easily be used to punish law-abiding citizens in the wrong place at the wrong time. 
Some might say my approach to preserve and protect these traditional human rights is absolutist. This is not the case. But too often we have been willing to undermine fundamental rights in the name of "balancing" them. Rights should be as absolute as possible. Universal human rights need to be upheld and protected. 
As Human Rights Commissioner it is my intention to continue defending them from being further diluted.

Indeed. Locking them up in solitary confinement for months on end, in a purely punitive, vengeful way, adopting the very worst of prison regimes from gulags, Guantanamo Bay and Arizona shows an equally sinister contempt for human rights. (No doubt Wilson will be taking a look at the treatment of refugees too).

Both the above examples come from Liberal state governments. But if Stephen Conroy and his very big filter was still around - yes the federal Liberal government also at one time flirted with such an idea - and silly Nicola Roxon, no doubt Wilson and the pond could find common ground.

It's not a matter of ideology or political leanings. Yet the lizards always insist on a partisan spin. Cue Kerr:

Uh huh, as always, it's the left's human rights hypocrisy, as if hypocrisy wasn't the common coin of all humanity.

Hang on a moment. Here's the hypocrisy and the double standard - belonging to an organisation and espousing its agenda and signing up to its 75 proposals plus 25 calling for all kinds of pie in the sky, including calling for the abolition of a body, then turning around and joining that very self-same body.

It's beyond the valley of irony, and well into the land of hypocrisy ...

Of course the pond took an immediate dislike to Ozdowski - the sight of a grown man wearing a bow tie always distorts perspective - and it wasn't helped when he immediately indulged in petty point-scoring and cheap shots:

Dr Ozdowski described as double standards the fact that critics who claimed Mr Wilson's appointment politicised the commission had stayed silent about the appointment in July of ABC presenter Tim Soutphommasane, a former fellow of left-leaning think tank Per Capita; staffer to Bob Carr during his days as NSW premier; and Hawker Britton employee who worked on Labor's successful 2007 federal election campaign. 
He also dismissed complaints that it was inappropriate to award Mr Wilson the role given that the IPA had called for the commission to be abolished, saying Labor had neglected the HRC by failing to fill the post. "At the moment, the commission is clearly out of balance," Dr Ozdowski said.

Once more, it's just left v right.

Actually, people didn't stay silent at the appointment of Soutphommasane:

In July, Senator Brandis condemned the Rudd government for appointing former ALP member and ex-Bob Carr staffer Tim Soutphommasane as Race Discrimination Commissioner. 
Senator Brandis told The Australian Dr Soutphommasane was ''yet another partisan of the Left'' who would ''not be able to win the public's confidence''. '
'Appointees must be people who can command the confidence of the entire community that they will discharge their responsibilities in the human rights field in a non-partisan manner,'' Senator Brandis told the newspaper, adding Dr Soutphommasane's appointment was part of a push to drive the debate on human rights issues towards the left. 
He told the newspaper that Dr Soutphommasane's appointment reinforced concerns that the Human Rights Commission had ''become an ideologically driven agency whose agenda lies entirely with advancing the causes of the Left''. 

And there's your problem in a nutshell. If Brandis is going to relentlessly politicise and denigrate one appointment by alleging its on party political lines, how on earth does anyone imagine that Brandis is going to be able to appoint Wilson without attention being paid to his work at the IPA?

The creepy Kerr was desperate enough to call on Michael Gawenda:

Former editor-in-chief of The Age, Michael Gawenda, now with Melbourne University's Centre for Advancing Journalism, cautioned that there was an issue of freedom of speech. 
"I have been concerned how the free speech issue has been hedged, the right to free speech has been hedged with all sorts of caveats that actually diminish free speech," he said. 
Mr Gawenda also cited the Bolt case. "This whole free speech issue in Australia has become part of the culture wars and that's a great pity because it ought not to be," he said.

So now we should pay attention to those deviants and perverts who run Pravda on the Yarra?

Wilson has already been more adept than that, quickly pointing out that the issue under discussion is bigger than the Bolter - in one interview, he even added that he wasn't that worried about the Bolter, who had a substantial platform and well-heeled backers ...

The pity of course is that the question of free speech has become part of the culture wars; the irony is that the Bolter, the Murdoch press, the reptiles at the lizard Oz and the IPA in particular has consistently made free speech and such like issues part of the culture wars.

And they're still doing it. Could there be a more indulgent, self-pitying, pitiful, piteous bleat than the one farted into the ether by the editorialist at the lizard Oz this Thursday morn?

Human rights is the core business of the Abbott government? The mob running Manus Island and Nauru, the mob at war with the Salvation Army and Amnesty International are into human rights?

As opposed to the right of the Murdoch press to behave like squawking, whining, whinging, irresponsible geese?

Geese that go strangely silent, go missing, in defence of all sorts of matters, most notably but not limited to big Bazza going union bashing, Campbell Newman inventing a quasi-fascist state, and Gina Rinehart leaning heavily on the media to muzzle it when it dared to observe the ongoing farce of her family's wondrous legal affairs ...

And then the poor old lizards realised they'd got themselves into a fine old pickle. So perforce they had to liberate themselves:

Great lines:

The IPA is hardly conservative ...

The Australian will always stoutly defend the right of ...

Why, these notions - indeed the whole editorial - are right up there with the use and abuse of the word liberated.

The Australian will always stoutly assault, with vigour, words and thuggish headlines, anyone who disagrees with the Murdochian world view ... and what a narrow, petulant, sulky and skulking world view it is ...

How regressive and repressive, with the icing on the Xmas cake the inclusion of even stray ABC broadcasters.

The trouble of course, is that the paranoid only wake fitfully from their paranoia. The reptiles as stout defenders of free expression? Only if you think the sight of sheep in the paddock baaahing in unison is a form of free expression ...

Which is why there's no sign of a hypocrisy commissioner. The rush of Murdochians to fill the post would keep the hiring and firing pollies busy for years ...

And now, speaking of the stench of double standards, hypocrisy, double-dealing and the Xmas spirit, as usual the pond's favourite cartoonists nail it in one. And also as usual, more Rowe here and more Popery here. Give them a hit to help out the Fairfaxians:

Freedom's just another word for allowing Christian Kerr to be a prime, first rate suck ...

And there the pond was thinking it was all about freedom.

Silly pond, it's all about setting a trap for lefties and greenies, and a diabolical one at that.

Kerr began:

George Brandis is setting a diabolical trap for Labor and the Greens. He intends to force them to declare. Do they believe in human rights, in particular the right of Campbell Newman to act as a quasi fascist thug, or simply in pandering to complaining constituencies in exchange for political support? The Attorney-General began to bait his trap with the announcement yesterday of the appointment of Institute of Public Affairs policy analyst Tim Wilson to the Human Rights Commission as "freedom commissioner", but this is only part of the plan. 
Brandis has thought deeply about rights and liberty during the past few years, and has decided Queensland simply isn't fascist enough. 
He watched Labor's attempts to stifle free speech and cow the media and impugn the brave quasi-fascist endeavours of Campbell Newman. He has considered both the philosophical and political dimensions of the issues involved. And he came to government with an audacious plan to help further Newman's plans to turn Queensland into a fascist state.

Oh dear, the New Zealand subbies got that entirely wrong.

What a muck up. It seems Christian Kerr completely failed to mention Campbell Newman, an outrageous and shocking omission, but what can you do? No more fush and chups you wretched NZ subbies for the rest of the week, and that goes for your seagulls too ...

Meanwhile, in reality, Kerr has scribbled the most astonishing suck-up the pond has yet sighted in any Murdoch rag in quite some time, not that there should be anything wrong with sucking, in the right time and place:

The Attorney-General studied human rights law at Oxford under the famed legal philosopher and constitutional scholar Ronald Dworkin. 
He was also taught by Joseph Raz, a giant in legal, moral and philosophical circles but little known outside the academic world. 
After he returned to Australia, Brandis spent eight years teaching jurisprudence at the University of Queensland, concentrating on the work of the great liberal and libertarian philosophers, figures such as the American thinkers Robert Nozick and John Rawls. 
This has led Brandis to develop a personal philosophy of human rights and politics.

Lordy, lordy, well no doubt Brandis was exercising his deep personal philosophy of politics when he said:

I intend to continue to call to the attention of the Australian people to the extremely alarming, frightening similarities between the methods employed by contemporary green politics and the methods and the values of the Nazis.

Because freedom is the freedom to invoke the Nazis, and not offer even a ha'penny to the Godwin's Law swear jar!

Strange, because in other contexts, George got a little agitated about making idle comparisons to Nazis.

You see, there was the matter of the book banning, because nothing reflects a deeper personal philosophy of human rights than the right to ban a book or two:

A Federal Government senator is demanding the withdrawal of a school library book which paints his political hero and Australia's longest-serving prime minister as a tyrant. 
Sir Robert Menzies is listed alongside the likes of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Cambodian ruler Pol Pot and the deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the children's reference book 100 Greatest Tyrants, which is used by students at a Mount Isa high school. 
Senator George Brandis has slammed the book, by British author Andrew Langley, describing it as offensive and inappropriate for history studies in any Australian school. "Of course it's absurd," Senator Brandis said. 
"It introduces students to the notion that there is a kind of moral equivalence between some of the most evil men in the history of the world and an Australian political leader who has been a beacon of liberal democracy." (Call for book ban).

Or when you say Nazi, it's outrageous, but when I say Nazi, what a wonderful metaphor it is.

And let's not forget George's rampant feminism:

Senator Brandis, who has a son and daughter, believes Ms Gillard's "vehement" reaction is out of proportion - and that's because she doesn't have children. 
"I think that most parents, in fact, all - any parent I can think of would agree with what Tony Abbott said," he told ABC radio. 
"I think Julia Gillard who is - has chosen not to be a parent - and, you know, everybody respects her right, in the vehemence of her reaction, in fact, shows that she just doesn't understand the way parents think about their children when they reach a particular age." (here)

Indeed, indeed, because let's face it, you should only speak freely or indulge in free speech if you have been, are or are about to be, a breeder. It's only fair.

Meanwhile, up in Queensland, people are being locked up for many months in solitary confinement and there's not a word of blather from the likes of Christian Kerr.

There's nothing more astonishing than the sight of a sycophant who turns, and Christian Kerr, ever since he's left Crikey and joined the reptiles at the lizard Oz, has turned into the most amazing sycophant doing the rounds. Why he makes Uriah Heep look like a stumble bum ...

All this handwringing about the Bolter getting done, and not a word, not even a handwringing, about what's going down in Queensland, because some people don't deserve to have rights ...

Meanwhile there's all this rhetorical bullshit and peacock strutting going down, because allegedly it's all about the media and in particular the right of Murdochians to be even more offensive:

The Attorney-General sees the new Human Rights Commissioner as a strong and capable ally. 
"I chose Tim Wilson for this role because I saw in him a person who had the philosophical integrity, political smarts and personal toughness to take this cause to the heart of the action," he says. 
And he has made it clear that he will press on with his agenda in the face of opposition from the ALP: "If the Labor Party does decide to adopt an anti-freedom position then we will deal with the crossbench senators," Brandis says. 
Wilson, too, is spoiling for a fight. 
"I'll be putting freedom on the offensive, where it belongs," he tells The Australian. He nominates free speech and media freedom as his two key priorities, saying both had come under attack under the last government. 
"Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential for a free society," Wilson says. 
"A free media is a direct extension of the importance of free speech and are one and the same in importance. 
"We need to remove the restrictions that have stopped people saying what they think and believe. "Only through a contest of ideas will our society flourish," Wilson continues, condemning the proposals by the previous Labor government to change anti-discrimination laws to ban conduct that "offends or insults". 
"We shouldn't have restrictions on what may offend or insult because they just end up restricting speech and stop incorrect ideas being challenged and rebutted," the new commissioner says.

Oh yes, the knob polishers and the hagiographers are out in force today.

But could anyone swallow this clarion call at the end of Kerr's shameless knob-polishing?

Now, the fight for freedom is on. The trap has been set.

Oh fuck off, or better still, fuck off to Queensland and Campbell Newman's domain and see how your talk of the fight for freedom goes down ...

And if you want more nausea and a reliable failure to mention Campbell Newman, you can also dial up
Wilson himself:

Yes, where are the advocates having a go at Campbell Newman?

Well the pond will leave anyone who cares or can be bothered to get around the Oz's paywall, the bamboo curtain with which it veils information and opinion - because such things can't be free - to read Wilson blathering on in The building blocks for a free society.

You won't find a single word or thought about Queensland or Campbell Newman or what has been going down in recent times in that blighted state.

Instead you'll find the usual rhetoric about the Bolter:

As human rights commissioner I will seek to reorient the human rights debate towards liberal democratic values and the philosophy of individual freedom. The most obvious freedom of speech issue this parliament will face is the Coalition's promise to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Section 18C has recently been controversial because of the Andrew Bolt case but, as its supporters are first to say, it has been used against many other Australians. 
I will be urging the full repeal of section 18C. It is an unjustifiable limitation on free expression. The best way to undermine offensive or hateful language is not to shut it down, it is to challenge it, expose it for its flaws. The solution is more speech. 
It is a central tenet of liberal democracy that the government's primary task is to protect our human rights, not restrict them.

Except of course if you're a bikie. You deserve no rights, you have no rights, a cockroach deserves more freedom.

And so the Bolter will be free to vilify and insult and offend and get his facts wrong and strut the stage in the most shameless way imaginable. But when it comes to difficult matters in relation to perceived outcasts, it all gets too hard ...

So the work of Campbell Newman in restricting rights can proceed apace, and neither Brandis nor Wilson will lift a rhetorical finger ...

Why not have a read of Peter Callaghan SC in Campbell Newman taking lessons from Vladimir Putin, Mr Wilson, scribbling back in November?

...today we can again gauge, precisely, the amount of respect that the government has for parliamentary process. A parliamentary committee that ought to be given at least a month to look at these laws has all of one day. That task cannot be completed in that time, at least not with intellectual rigour. One senses that even this act of tokenism is viewed as an inconvenience. You can almost hear muttering to the effect that Putin does not have to worry about the scrutiny of parliamentary committees. 
It is not as if the Bill is uncontroversial. In fact, it cloaks daggers aimed at the heart of the rule of law. For example, once this law is passed, a citizen's liberty will potentially be affected not just by what they did, or what they belonged to at the time of an alleged offence. Freedom is now to be threatened if a person is or at any time has been a member of a relevant organisation. It is sickening to think that the language of Joseph McCarthy is now part of the Law of Queensland. And remember, “organisations” are not limited to groups of “bikies”. 
It is just wrong to change someone's status in the eyes of the law because of something they did long ago, back when that something was perfectly legal. At any given time, the law must be certain. All citizens are entitled to know the laws that apply to them on any given day, and not to have their conduct condemned years after the event. 
It is sheer folly to claim that such a change can ever be justified because of an “emergency”. An executive government that thinks it can legislate retrospectively is a government for which anything is possible, because it can provide its own definition of “emergency”. If it thinks it can legislate retrospectively, there is nothing to stop it from removing long-standing pension entitlements because of a financial “emergency”, or retrospectively invalidating a well-established planning law because of a housing “emergency”. 
It is hard to see how the fact that someone belonged to a motorcycle club 40 years ago could create a sense of panic in anyone. It is actually doubtful whether the majority of Queenslanders were feeling any sense of “emergency” that could justify a law like this. But a different sort of problem does now confront us, as it does any society that allows legislation of this kind. 
Retrospective legislation is condemned by every civilised nation in the world. These countries hold to the values expressed in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a Covenant supported by most countries on the planet. However, there is a short list of places in the world – such as North Korea – where the beliefs that underpin that Covenant are clearly not valued. 
It cannot be good for Queensland's "brand name" to be associated with the countries on that list. But we are now a place where, at any given time, the law should be considered uncertain. That is not good for business. 
It would be nice to think that the discussion about this issue could take place in language at least worthy of a high school debate. Instead, we can anticipate repetition of clichés and parroting of the term “tough new laws”. Understand this – our laws were always tough. Whether the police and the CMC were sufficiently resourced to enforce them is another matter. The same politicians who control those resources should not be allowed to distract from their failings by describing retrospective legislation as “tough”. Call it – and the rest of this nonsense - what it is: radical, disproportionate and obnoxious. 
It should be remembered that the way a government behaves towards the democratic process is only a manifestation of the way they would behave towards each of us individually – by definition, we are the democracy. 
And when any one of us senses that we are being treated with utter disrespect, it does not take long for that feeling to become mutual. (here)

That's where the rubber really hits the freedom road, in George Brandis's and Campbell Newman's Queensland, and all Tim Wilson's screeching about the long suffering Bolter doesn't do a whit or a jot about it ...

Time will tell if Wilson is actually a brave freedom fighter or a poseur wanker blathering on for his mates, and seeing all the evils as being on the side of leftists and greenies.

Campbell Newman offers him the ideal chance, and now Wilson can do more about it than banging on for a few minutes on The Drum, here.

Thus far ... silence, not a mention, talk of Newman going too far forgotten ... while in print copious tears are shed about the Bolter and the Murdochian media ...

And expert knob-polisher Christian Kerr gets on with the whimsical knob-polishing.

(Below: gee, there does look like there's a family connection)

Talking of predictable pre-Xmas surprises ...

Well there's a predictable surprise, as noted by the pond's correspondents, always a step ahead of the pond, though whether that's always wise might be questioned, as the lemming said to the cliff, and the corrupt government said 'here's a go' to its mates ...

In its epic, visionary list of 75 ways to improve Australia, the IPA listed at number four:

4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. 

 Of course the diligent vision also included a few kind words for sponsors:

 38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food. 

 41 Repeal the alcopops tax. (and there's lot more bright ideas here)

And then the gang added 25 more ideas, and 'abolish the HRC' clocked in at 82, here.

As for the Human Rights Commission, why in due course, a few months later, that warranted a press release all on its own:

"The Australian Human Rights Commission does not protect human rights and should be abolished," Simon Breheny, Director of the Legal Rights Project at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs will tell the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee today. 
Mr Breheny is appearing at the first day of committee hearings into the Gillard government's exposure draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 in Melbourne today. 
He will tell the inquiry that despite the fact that the draft Bill is an attack on fundamental human rights, it is supported by the Australian Human Rights Commission. 
"The Australian Human Rights Commission does not defend fundamental rights such as the right to free speech and property. Instead, it selectively defends a human rights agenda determined entirely by the left," said Mr Breheny. (here)


As opposed to the IPA, of course, which vigorously pursues the rights of all, provided they smoke a lot, all the way into the grave, and drink lots of grog, and never mind the kidneys and liver, or the cost of the nanny state trying to keep the bodies of the mug punters going.

Remember, always socialise the profits, and make sure the state picks up the police, hospital, prison and battered, bruised people costs ...

Mark Colvin had a nice opening line about it last night:

MARK COLVIN: It's a rights organisation he used to think shouldn't exist, which defends an anti-discrimination law he didn't believe in, and pays over $320,000 a year. 
Meet Tim Wilson, formerly of the free market Institute of Public Affairs, Article 82 of whose political agenda for Australia is "Abolish the Australian Human Rights Commission". 
Mr Wilson has now resigned his positions with the IPA and the Liberal Party to take a job as a commissioner of that very organisation. 
Mr Wilson says he looks forward to "advancing the Government's freedom agenda". (here)

Now the pond is accustomed to hypocrisy.

It's a nice rich warm stench, of the kind you find in bog swamps, politics and private institutes where the rule is everyone for themselves.

It also goes with the crony commentariat turf.

One day you can say how shocked, disgusted and appalled you are by something, the next day you can sign up for 320k and explain how you're going to reform government from the inside. Tailor, some nice elbow patches, and spare no expense with the cardigans. Waiter, from now on, only tea with milk and a couple of sugars.

Shakespeare put it nicely:

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

And Orwell captured that freedom agenda nicely:

Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, 
Beasts of every land and clime, 
Hearken to my joyful tidings 
Of the golden future time. 
Soon or late the day is coming, 
Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown, 
And the fruitful fields of England 
Shall be trod by beasts alone. 
Rings shall vanish from our noses, 
And the harness from our back, 
Bit and spur shall rust forever, 
Cruel whips shall no more crack. 
 Riches more than mind can picture, 
Wheat and barley, oats and hay, 
Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels, 
Shall be ours upon that day. 
 Bright will shine the fields of England, 
Purer shall its water be, 
Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes 
On the day that sets us free. 
 For that day we all must labour, 
Though we die before it break; 
Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
All must toil for freedom's sake ...

For Freedom's Sake. Tim's a toiler in the field, like any other goose or turkey!

Of course, it didn't work out too well for the creatures, but that's the way it goes on Animal Farm, where on any given day, the chance of picking the difference between the pigs with snout in trough and the humans with snout in trough is slim to none ...

Was it only in November that Chris Berg was drumming up a storm at the ABC with Freedom: the forgotten human right, in which he called for the abolition of ... the HRC?

Hmm, the pond has an idea. Surely the ice Berg is just the right man to right that Titanic of leftist thinking, the ABC.

Sure, it's a hopeless organisation, but privatise it and put in under the IPA, and soon enough everybody will just love their cigarettes and grog.

And if it's good enough for Tim to become a loyal public servant ... helping make government that little bit bigger ... why every government body could do with a little help from the IPA.

Speaking of board troughs and snouts, there was another reliable surprise, snuck in just before Xmas, presumably based on the notion that nobody was paying attention though the sheer nakedness and shamelessness of the chutzpah involved means more than a few have already got agitated about Sophie Mirabella joins board of submarine maintenance organisation.

The bit that the pond loves is the reason finance minister Mathias Cormann offered in support of the appointments:

Cormann pointed to Mirabella’s past shadow cabinet roles as relevant to the appointment. “Combined with her legal background and her extensive experience working with the manufacturing industry, Mrs Mirabella will make a valuable contribution to the board,” he said.

Of course the voters of Indi might take a different view, seeing as how they told her to fuck off, for being totally useless and a complete waste of space, which is why the always helpful pond would like to suggest a few new lines for the ASC corporate values list, to be found here:

We are relentless in our pursuit of excellence.
We are exemplary in all we do. 
We do not accept complacency. 
We take responsibility for our own performance. 
We act with urgency and pace. 
So quick, if you've been kicked in the guts by your electorate
Give your mates a call and ask them for a little help
And with urgency and pace
Why you'll have a nice little earner for the next three years.

We sponsor ideas for improvement. 
We constructively challenge for a better way. 
We embrace and lead change. 
We seek feedback.
And if your electorate told you to fuck off
Why not fuck them off by joining our board?
That's what we call effective fucking feedback ...

Just kicking it around ASC dudes, no doubt you'll have better ideas, and the pond will be eager to follow up in the new year.

Every day is a comedy day at the pond, but can it get much better than this?

Tim Wilson, for the past seven years a policy director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank that early this year called for the abolition of the Human Rights Commission, will be known informally as the "Freedom Commissioner". (here) 

Or as Herr Rex might put it, Freihiet Kommissar.

Enough already, the pond simply has to slip a dollar in the Godwin's Law swear jar, so we can recite along with all the other two legs:

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Oh and as a bonus:

Slavery is Freedom
And so is the right to kill yourself with fags and grog
Unless while pissed as a parrot
You prefer to king hit someone in the street
(Mustn't forget the sponsor message)

Then there was this rather prescient ripper of a quote:

The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better, and 320k a year or a plum board job sure buys a shitload of happiness. Thank the long absent lord we have the freedom to accept the kindness of mates ...

Or some such thing.

Why is it that the Bergians, the IPA crowd, Wilson and the rest of the mob are always ready to deploy Orwell?

The IPA’s got form fighting Orwellian ideas ... (here)

So that's what joining Big Brother means? And here the pond was thinking it was a really crappy TV show ...

Meanwhile, there are a couple of areas the new Freihiet Kommissar can immediately begin to explore.

First there's this question of weak-kneed activist Queensland judges, who remarkably seem to have got some bee in their bonnet about the quasi-fascist ways of the Newman government.

The judgments note that the United Nations called for the abolition of solitary in 1990 and international conventions prohibited the cruel or inhuman treatment of prisoners. 
Research linked solitary to the development of psychotic illnesses and it was recognised as ``an extreme prison practice which should only be used as a last resort and then only for a short period of time.'' ``Any substantial period of solitary confinement carries a high risk of causing serious psychological damage to the respondent which will endure after his release. Such enduring consequences carry dangers for members of the community.'' 
 There was "no arithmetical calculation'' to convert months in normal prison conditions to a period in solitary but his role was to deliver a just punishment, Justice Applegarth said. (and more here, along with a forced advertisement).

Astonishing, outrageous. Campbell Newman's freedom to act as a quasi-fascist leader of a quasi-fascist state has been seriously impeded.

No doubt crusading Tim will fight for Newman's freedom to continue on in his quasi-fascist ways.

Meanwhile, the pond has serious concerns about the freedom of the IPA.  For years, shadowy figures in the background have repressed the freedom of this noble body.

The freedom to reveal how much its sponsors and special interest groups fork out to keep the IPA afloat, the freedom to reveal what really goes on in this secretive, furtive organisation, the freedom to end the dissembling and the lies, the freedom to reveal the truth about the freedom fighters.

Guess that's a job for the new Freihiet Kommissar ... unless freedom is just another word for nothin' left to lose, nothin' except a tidy 320k in the paw ...

(Below: guess the joke)

No, the pond certainly might not like ... so many things ...

No, look, thanks, we've thought about it, but the odds are really high that the pond might not like that bit of murky opinion, despite the beguiling smirk. Might not like it a lot. Sorry about that ...

Another rabid right wing loon frothing and foaming in a frenzy about the ABC? Why they're a ha'penny a dozen in Murdoch la la land ...

Oh sure in the good old days, Tuesday was prattling Polonius day, and we romped together in a field of Fairfaxian dreams.

But then Polonius, perhaps afraid of the arras,  took refuge amongst the lizards, and became one of just another clone, another clown, another member of the grey army of Murdochian crony commentariat scribblers.

Now the pond is over Polonius, so, so over him, and you know what, not reading him is surprisingly easy.

It's nothing like that searing withdrawal scenario William Burroughs portrayed in Junkie. More like giving up compound chocolate and cleansing the palate and the mind.

Come to think of it, the pond might also not like to read:

Oh sure, it's a big, bold, brassy EXCLUSIVE though what's so EXCLUSIVE about containing costs remains a mystery to the pond.

No, it's more that it's a story about an NBN, which in the old days stood for a National Broadband Network.

These days it stands for a copper network, a HFC network, and a network joined together by many things, most notably cabbage and string and sealing wax...

The pond is more interested in reading this sort of thing:

The Government today announced that it would cut all funding to the national broadband rollout and instead power the network directly with Communication Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s charm. 
A spokesperson for the Government said the new policy was both fiscally responsible and politically prudent. “Malcolm has already managed to convince a majority of Australians that an inferior, underfunded broadband network is actually in their interests, simply by using a clever turn of phrase and a cheeky smile. We thought we should channel all that energy and charisma directly into Australian homes and save around $40 billion in the process.” (more at The Shovel, here).

There you go Ziggy, there's how to keep down costs.

And there you go mendacious Murdochians with your blather about the "Coalition's version of the NBN".

There is no NBN, there's not going to be an NBN, and that's an end of it. You've won lizards, you've helped reduce Australia to a technological wilderness. Stuff that up your woolly  jumper and while you're at it, shove a Pioneer bus up there as well ...

You see, the pond is tired, the holiday season, the Xmas chaos, always produces a sense of being rundown, and end times getting near.

That's why we might not like:

Dear sweet long absent lord, does he never shut up about how he cares about the environment while endlessly extolling the virtues of anything and everything that destroys the environment, all with the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed cockiness and conviction that all is for the best in an always upward moving, problem solving world .... which only suggests to the pond that the sheep long ago fled the top paddock in Scandinavia.

And while we're at it, there are other things the pond might not like, endless things, so many if you laid them end to end, they'd soar past the moon and the Chinese proving that the age of American space is now gone. Like this:

The pond understands why the Fairfaxians ran the piece. It's click bait, and never mind that it doesn't just demean Fairfax for publishing such blatant, naked, mindlessly parochial and dumb click bait, it also demeans Jai.

Oh okay, the pond bit on Badgerys Creek airport will be a white elephant, but in the end, it came down to Jai Martinkovits asserting that Badgerys Creek would be a bummer because there was a single airport in Spain that had been a bummer, and very fast trains would be good because very fast trains are good.

It was, to put it politely, mere idle gibberish, no evidence, no carefully structured arguments arising from facts, just assertions, and full of this sort of rhetoric:

... for those who still choose to travel by air, may I suggest that if the good citizens of Penrith knew that they could jump on a train and be at Sydney Airport in, say, 32 minutes, you can bet your bottom dollar that any support for a second airport at Badgerys Creek would quickly evaporate.

Yes, as soon as you get a goose talking about the "good citizens" of anywhere without a hint of irony or satire, along with that smarmy "may I suggest", you know you're in the land of a prize ponce.

No, you may not suggest, unless the pond may also suggest your piece read like a simpleton trying to construct an NBN out of left over bibs and bobs.

Why not write something sensible instead? Perhaps, in particular, you shouldn't conclude a piece involving national transportation policy - trains and planes and the Sydney hub - with a reference to the good fucking citizens of Penrith ... as if that's some sort of clincher, some sort of knock down rhetorical blow.

As if they're the only bloody jaffas in the bloody box.

The capper of course came with the credit, which the pond only read after the event:

Jai Martinkovits is joint author with David Flint of Give Us Back Our Country.

Uh huh. Give the pond back its five minutes of wasted life, Fairfaxians.

What's even more irritating is that in the very same Fairfaxians in the same breath launched into an impassioned editorial:

And what's worse the rag was still blathering on about Penrith, as if prattling Polonius had never left the joint:

The words ''Penrith'' and ''glamour'' are rarely, if ever, combined in a sentence but for economists, politicians, builders and policy wonks, Penrith sits at the centre of the most glamorous economic territory in the state. 
The physical centre of Sydney now lies west of Parramatta and the city has to grow inland. Creating excessive density in the existing housing stock will lower the quality of life in the city. 
If Mr Abbott does end decades of inertia and give the go-ahead for a second airport, it will create a jobs and growth boom for western Sydney. In a single stroke it could make Mr Abbott the ''infrastructure prime minister'' he wants to be remembered as.

Uh huh. What is it with bloody Penrith? What about Blacktown? What about Wentie?

Even worse, there was no apology from the editorialist. No "sorry we wasted your time readers, with Jai", and not a word of apology for the editorialist's own breath-taking, countervailing bit of stupidity:

The physical centre of Sydney now lies west of Parramatta and the city has to grow inland. Creating excessive density in the existing housing stock will lower the quality of life in the city. 

So now we're building quarter acre blocks all the way to Lithgow? With fucked public infrastructure and tollways carving through the inner suburbs the solution?

It reminded the pond of a story we stumbled across the other day back in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 15th November 1978 (click to enlarge):

Yes people have been brooding about Badgerys Creek for decades.

No, the pond might not like reading any more insights from Jai or the Fairfaxian editor.

Indeed the pond might not like the Bolter blathering on in his usual way, about leftists and lefties, the only pleasing thing in How to con the Canberra gallery the Labor way being that warmists cop a rest.

In his usual, infinitely stupid way, the Bolter thinks that the hacks are easily misled by the twitterverse and by John McTernan and chitchat about Malcolm Turnbull's fraudband.

He simply doesn't seem to understand that anyone with half a clue, or perhaps with direct experience of real broadband, knows what is now being proposed is indeed fraudband, and that it's an abuse of the English language, as well as an abuse of many other things, to call what is now being proposed a National Broadband Network.

As usual, since he has the breadth of vision of a gnat, the Bolter reduces it all to personalities.

But that brings us back to where we started.

NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski described the Coalition’s predominantly Fibre to the Node-based NBN model as containing a number of “heroic” assumptions, adding that it would be “tough” to meet the new Government’s 2016 delivery deadline for the NBN. 
As a replacement strategy, NBN Co recommended a drastically reduced rollout schema, which it dubbed an “Optimised Multi-Technology Mix”). In this model, FTTP-style broadband would not be deployed to some 24 percent of Australian premises located in metropolitan areas by the end of 2020, with another 32 percent not to receive FTTN infrastructure, 12 percent not to receive Fibre to the Basement or similar and similar upgrades not planned for another 30 percent, considering that percentage is already covered by the HFC cable networks operated by Telstra and Optus. This rollout in total would cover 93 percent of the population, with the remaining 7 percent to be covered by no satellite or wireless options.

Yes, it's the perfect rollout that isn't a rollout strategy, and you can read the rest at Delimiter here. It's the 'not a bloody network', not bloody now, and never bloody nigh scheme ...

Do we have one more "no, we might not like" left? One we can quickly cash in?

Oh wait, we rather like that, the smirk posturing and posing below a mystery pal at lesbian night ...

It sort of resonates. A natural prat prattling on in his natural tabloid home. 

Of course it would have been better if it had been Cardinal Pell, and who knows what Petey boy's Hillsong friends will think of the company he keeps, but it lightened the pond's day. And golly did it need some lightening.

At least there's always Master Rowe. Oh look there's Big Mal with the wrong sort of cabling on his head. Quick, someone find some string and sealing wax ...

(Below: more David Rowe here)

But then things quickly got gloomy again.

Here you are, reconcile this:

Abbott was the best?

Reconcile that with this, if you will and if you can:

So is this what schizophrenia looks and feels like?

More First Dog here, but hold your nose as you enter Crikey ... if being a boofheaded, head-kicking romper stomper winner is all that's needed to get accolades from Crikey, then the pond might not find First Dog enough reason to subscribe, not even in the name of iconoclasm and eccentricity and perversity for the sake of being independently and proudly perverse ...

Why all these bad bloody pennies, and why do they keep turning up just before Xmas?

You can always rely on bad pennies to turn up.

Like bad smells, they just keep bobbing along, and then suddenly, whoosh, they hit you like a sewerage treatment works.

Devotees of bad pennies might remember this item in mUmBRELLA, here, which inter alia reported that one Jason Morrison had been sacked:

...Fairfax Radio Network’s 2UE sunk to the lowest rating commercial station in Sydney and hours after the station finally publicly confirmed that it was letting Morrison go. 
In an email to staff last night, 2UE’s general manager Chris Parker said: 
“Good Evening, “After three years at 2UE 954, Jason Morrison is moving on. “During his second professional stint at 2UE, Jason has provided listeners with a no nonsense, hard hitting mix of breaking news, information and entertainment. “He is a professional, credible and reliable broadcaster and is to be commended for his dedication and for speaking out on issues that matter. “We expect Thursday November 21st to be his final program and wish Jason and his family all the very best. “2UE 954 aims to be Sydney’s leading source of news, information and entertainment and we’ll be in a position to make some very positive announcements on this front soon.”

Yep, even if you gave away Morrison for free on commercial radio, you couldn't find a listener or a mug punter willing to summon the energy to twitch the dial his way.

So you could knock the pond down with a feather when it discovered the very same Morrison bobbing up in the Daily Terror.

Morrison is, of course, in the usual way of all shock jocks, an expert climate scientist.

After years of rigorous training, and the collection of several degrees, he stands at the pinnacle of the profession, admired by all for his scientific rigour.

And wouldn't you know it, he's also an expert on the war on Xmas, and so it all came together this morning:

But wait, there was more, Morrison was just getting started, just getting cranked up like a crank, just getting the cogs in the brain whirring, just starting to motor-mouth like a mindless member of the hive:

The hypocrisy here is the whole righteous, global warming scare-game has always been about "doing what's best for the kids". I assume destroying their dreams and frightening them is still within the brief. Of course the "Christmas is cancelled" campaign is being met with acclaim from the advertising world. After all, "it's all about getting cut through and calling people to action". I can see the creative types nodding in agreement.
"Christmas shouldn't be just about presents, fun, family and religion. It's an important time to get people thinking about where we are going as a society and what we need to change". Ever noticed how the morally superior can rationalise anything for the cause - even calling off Santa? 
In a similar tone, the great green warrior Lord Mayor Clover Moore couldn't help herself either this year. The lady who once removed Christmas from the city's streets for fear of offending people has gone from censoring it to exploiting it - and again it's in the name of saving the planet. 
Clover used ratepayer funds to commission a special sleigh to take Santa and herself (of course!) from the Town Hall to Martin Place. 
But it had to have a zero carbon footprint, so the Pushbike Princess, responsible for transforming Sydney's roads into a traffic-snarled obstacle course, had cyclists instead of reindeer towing her sleigh. It's probably the first time those cycle paths have had a decent workout. Santa's little helpers were kitted up in lycra. 

Uh huh. It's at this point that even a raving ratbag realises that Morrison is off with the pixes, or the elves. He's making a lycra joke! When we all know that the leading MAMIL in the land is a hero:

On a bicycle!

What's the bet that somehow Morrison next mentions leftists?

The left knows no bounds when it comes to trying to win the argument, even to the point of advocating a little Christmas jihad. 
Last week, on Paul Murray's Sky News show, I got into a debate with an ABC radio host about why we shouldn't tolerate young Australian men going to fight alongside terrorists in Syria. 
For me, it's not just a matter of principle. ASIO has warned of threat this poses to Australia's national security. I believe if you call this place home you don't go and take up arms for other nations. 
Before you knew it, the ABC's Dominic Knight was comparing today's young Australians behind the guns in Syria with Diggers in World War I. His argument was: "Plenty of Australians historically have fought in other people's wars. Are you as outraged about Australian soldiers dying in Britain's wars? In George Bush's war?" 
I wonder how many more lefty thinkers out there can't see any difference between Australians who are fighting for their country and those who fly out to take up AK47s in search of jihad. 
These days some people can rationalise anything seemingly with no regard to the damage caused. Debase all the traditions they like to win the argument. But in the end they get caught out. 
On Christmas morning, dear children, you'll know that Santa still came down the chimney, the North Pole isn't melting, his warehouse was never flooded and your presents are in perfect order. Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas to all!

Actually by the very end of it all, the pond wondered why on earth the editor of the Daily Terror had jumped the shark.

Was it sympathy? A fellow member of the hive mind on struggle street and needing a helping hand? Making room for a blabbermouth blathering away because having him blather on Sky News wasn't nearly enough?

But they couldn't give Morrison away for free on 2UE and attract enough ratings to keep the station janitor busy ...

How is this going to help the Daily Terror attract readers? They have ratbag rabid frothing and foaming members of the crony commentariat lathering themselves into a frenzy every day of the week.

Surely Morrison provides the perfect example of a completely redundant column?

And yet they made him number one on the rotating digital dashboard of doom?

Do they really think mug punters are going to play for this sort of perverted pleasure?

Meanwhile, the pond couldn't help but notice that the lascivious Fred Nile has decided to get hitched again to make his passion legal:

Poor old Fred copped some rough if utterly fair and correct treatment, as you can read in Fred Nile, 79, remarries as gay activists demonstrate outside church:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott sent them a message: ''Marriage is about walking the same path together. It is a profound, rich and fulfilling journey that should draw out the better angels of our nature.'' 
Viva la Bang would agree. She said Nile's ''point of being against gay marriage is because the Bible says it's between a man and a woman for the means of procreation''. 
 ''Yet's here's a man, 70-something years old, marrying a woman of 55. Are they really going to procreate? So if they can get married, why can't we?''

Indeed. Let's see if fearless Fred is up to the long absent Lord's demands.

But the pond was more distracted by the attached story, which saw Malcolm Turnbull attempt to claw back a little street cred in Malcolm Turnbull: Australia out of step on gay marriage.

Indeed Australia is out of step.

But then Australia is also out of step on broadband.

And that's something Turnbull, allegedly the Federal Miscommunications Minister for Broad Band Fuck Ups, was supposed to do something about. Something actually within his ambit, within his alleged remit.

Instead, he lied, cheated, dissembled and defrauded Australian voters, and will go on doing same for the foreseeable future.

How long does he think he can get by dog whistling to liberals on gay marriage, while at the same time fucking them over on broadband?

Yes big Mal, gays want decent broadband as well as the right to get married.

You really are a knavish fellow, aren't you? As one of the pond's friends noted, he trained as a lawyer and worked for a merchant bank, it's a wonder the copper hasn't been dug up and sold off to South America ...

Meanwhile, the mainsteam media has begun to note the complete deception, the hopeless fraud, involving HFC, and you too can read about it in HFC suburbs NBN no man's land.

All was going well until the pond then followed a link and ended up on HFC can handle NBN: Hackett.

Who'd have thunk it? So Simon Hackett's a fucking idiot too ...

The pond would greatly enjoy seeing Hackett hooked up to HFC for a month, preferably with Optus. It could be a winning result, what with Hackett driven to assassinate Turnbull, and then sent to jail to repent his stupidity and lickspittle fellow travelling ...

The end result? Well the pond understands it will be in the NBN wilderness now until the end of time and the knackery intervenes, and there'll be no need for the internet in the coffin (second thoughts, what if it's a Spoorloos situation?)

All that's left is rage, raging at the dying of the NBN, and rage at Malcolm Turnbull for his smarmy, dissembling ways, a figure who can now cheerfully stand in place of Stephen "let's build a gigantic filter for everything" Conroy as a betrayer of dreams ...

Meanwhile, if you want a more detailed discussion, a little more than the pond's proposal that Simon Hackett is simply a lickspittle fellow travelling congenial idiot of the Liberal party facilitating kind, why not head off to the remorseful Delimiter, and hapless Renai LeMay as she tries to make up for her many sins, as you can read in  "Simply wrong": Hackett attacks NBN HFC critics.

What a useless goose. He's not even connected via HFC, and so has no idea of the joys of HFC ...

Yes "joys" is an ironic, satirical abuse of a perfectly pleasant word ...

(Below: simply wrong says simple Simon. Why the pond may as well keep on reading Jason Morrison for all the sense Simon Hackett makes in his Adelaide bunker, offering up an apologetics for a plan in urgent need of a profound apology. We already have half-arsed cheapskates offering a half-arsed cheapskate service, and now we get another explanation of how a half-arsed cheapskate solution will do the job? As yet another aging bit of infrastructure is trotted out as a futuristic solution?)

Here's what you're really facilitating Simon Hackett of Adelaide. 

The twittering of an unrepentant twit, who still doesn't understand that any leadership ambitions he currently retains within him are being quickly buried by his routine smug betrayals (and doesn't Tony Abbott know it). 

You can get your fill of those twittering tweets here.

First it was going to be copper that saved us, and was perfectly fine and good, and now HFC is the solution?

Fuck it, that's the final pre-Xmas fucking straw ... and now to those tweets from the very new re-treaded dingbat, the very model of a modern Stephen Conroy ...