Pell-Pot... Beckett, you are not!

G'day Possums,

well, it seems that one of the last edifices of Australian civil society, the Catholic Church has been shown to be rotten from the top down, too. Joining the finance and banking sectors, treatment of the elderly in nursing homes,  endemic violence against women, the appalling conditions for incarcerated indigenous youth, the anti-environmental stupidities in the Murray-Darling. 

The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse has claimed Cardinal George Pell, who has been convicted on 5 counts over two boys, as a paedophile and is awaiting sentencing.

"It's a sad story and it wasn't of much interest to me" said Pell-Pot (*2) when asked how much he knew of his priests paedophile activities, betraying his dismissive clerical arrogance and also, as parents of his victims have told "....his sociopathic lack of empathy" as he didn't seem fazed by the fact that 7% of his clergy were serial perpetrators.

 Le Thoronet

Shades of... “You do not, have the power to command bishops.”* railed Beckett to Henry 2 in 1162 as the king attempted to pull the clergy into judicial line on similar matters.

The enraged howls emanating from The Ugly American Murdoch's shills over his Pell's conviction had ex prime miniature, Little Johnny Howard in the lead, and Miranda The Mad, Devine followed by Blot-on-the-Landscape, Bolt both frothing at the mouth over this alleged miscarriage of justice..."...he's a good bloke", "...a witty conversationalist".. "...he couldn't have done it" claimed all three, not in possession of the facts of the case, but seeing perhaps truly for the first time, in this "...disgraceful decision.." (by 12 jurors) that one of their apparently unassailable conservative, nay, fascist pillars, had suddenly fallen, disgraced and more importantly, was forever impotent.

Silvacane

Did it occur to them that their political commentary and lying might now come under closer scrutiny and that Little Johnny who was so keen to kill Iraqi's on a hunch about WMD's and send troops into indigenous camps on falsified information, be racist to the very refugees whose plight he had helped cause were now exposed and didn't have the moral cover they once assumed through association?That they were justly being clearly seen as craven paedophile apologists and protectors?

Le Thoronet

Fractured is the glass of benign paternalism and the isolation of "truth" troublemakers that had worked for centuries as had, "You do not have the power to command bishops"... as when Bernard of Clairvaux did a family take-over of the Cistercian monasteries set up by a rather gentle Englishman, Stephen Harding (which was probably the last time the French saw anything gentle in the English), which became in the so-called, "Middle -Ages" a prototype multi-national organization, calls up the Crusades, castigates Richard the Lionheart's mum, Eleanor for being a little fiesty (and too fun loving) and then he helped set up the Templars who were a multi-national business (before Phillip IV tried a terminal take-over of his own a few years down the track)...and shooed the peasants off their land and out of their villages in the godly pursuit of larger profits and more land for their "Lay-brothers" (serfs) to work whilst they discussed how many angels could dance on the head of a pin!

The Forge, Fontenay

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest" said Denis Diderot, who is one man who would have heartily applauded Julia Gillard's setting up of this RC into child sex abuse. Who, as Prime Minister was so consistently and foully abused by those now singing the praises of a convicted paedophile cleric and who hypocritically think the law is what they say it is but doesn't apply to them.

End times? What a mess has been made of this country.

Hoo-roo petals,

Shane

Silvacane

* Ackroyd, History of England… Foundation. Macmillan 2011

*2Pell-Pot: the nickname given Pell by staff at the Catholic Education Office when he became Archbishop of Melbourne (when the convicted offences occurred) and halted all new appointments that had been made, particularly those of women.

...to the reality of Fantasy

G’day Possums,

Shane and Dame Nellie Melba

As we said last week we were about to attend a re-union and celebration to remember Betty Pounder, legendary choreographer for J.C. Williamson’s theatre organization. Well we have and it was a good event.

For more Archival images Facebook: Sparkle Darlings.

The brainchild of and organised by Kevin Coxhead, "Sparkle Darlings" the Pounder catch-cry, attracted around 110 people, some travelling from West Australia and Queensland to attend Her Majesty's Theatre Melbourne.

Costuming from various musicals were modelled, anecdotal speeches made and there was an AV presentation of “Pounder’s” life before the night got down to some seriously hilarious catching up and reminiscing.

It was wryly amusing to see groups of people taking up poses similar to what they did when young and poignant observing some “come-alive” at the reminiscing and re-living of past experiences.

The banter too; so funny, theatrical, pointedly accurate but well meaning, with many observing that there was in the room the remnants of an era of professional theatre that we’ll probably not see the likes of again… a generation of talents across the board which has been corporatised from existence.

Very few in the room were still working professionally, some were teaching but all I spoke to agreed that regardless of the time spent, the theatre experience was one of the most formative periods in their lives.

What is it that makes that experience so rewarding, and so pervasive?

I think it’s the distillation of a life experience that is being expressed. It is in that expression and distillation a purely classical Grecian sense of order.

Peter Brook legendary English director said once that theatre was pure socialism with a dictator in charge. It was a practise, which in the abnegation of self to a shared and common cause the performer found true freedom. And in that freedom was a reality more potent than the mundane actuality of real existence.

Ahh, Petals, it is no wonder then that if people have this sort of experience you rarely ever find them to be dully conservative in their politics because that way lies the death of creativity, imagination and society.

 

Wombat Droppings

In a truly Byzantine stumbling meander through history, Chrissy “Bunter” Berg (IPA, Ineffectual) is now blaming Labor’s Chifley and Curtin and a 40’s wartime economy for “Cereal-Toyota-Killer” Hockey’s inability to sell his contemporary horror budget of 26 broken promises to anyone at all. He attempted to justify that welfare and social spending is bad idea when the rich few, get less from the many poor…or something.   The typical “Coots-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe” fruit-loop, surreal-thought-bubbles from his foetid imagination seem only to be looking for a reason to prove his pay cheque is warranted.

They remind me of the Neo-Classical sculptor David d’Angers who, on seeing for the first time in London, the Marbles of the Parthenon asked himself, “…if his career had not been one long misunderstanding, a permanent confusion between the truth he beheld and the life he aspired to attain.”

I hope an art reference doesn’t “throw” these economic and cultural Neanderthals.

The Liarbril/Notional coalition is sounding like a chorus version of Irving Berlin’s “Anything you can do, I can do better,” as they begin to contradict each other over this patched together far right, IPA, free-market, budget insanity for Australia’s social dismemberment.

Prime Miniature “Rabbutt-the-Hun” had need, again to slap down Chwissy “The-Perfect-Prat-of-a-Prefect, Pyne “The Whyne” and Joe “Cereal-Killer” for example and reverse their statements that, Chwissy had no ideological problems with chasing after a student debt even if the student was dead and Joe thought it a good thing, too..

Now there’s a duo of front bench catholics with real hearts of gold.

Cold and hard….. and very bad Karma. 

Chwissy has done this so often; the fact that he hasn't been replaced only indicates either the dearth of ability / lack of imagination or both, within the Liarbril party.

Poll results after ten months of their hubristic incompetence show that they are about to implode into a black hole of their own creating as more and more Australians realise just what a mangy rabble these mongrels really are.

The IPA’s history of destroying those they “Help” is well known but some “Aspirationals” just never “get it.”

Others who didn’t get it were all the students at Whitehouse Institute of Design other than the Prime Miniature’s daughter and that of the owner who each received their $60,000.00 tuition fees as scholarships.

On merit. 

Of course.

Really. Truly.

Nothing to do with accreditation, etc?

Nahhh.

College President’s a Liarbril donor. So?  Whaddayamean, The Age of Entitlement is over?

As one, Tim Jones tweeted, “We trudge through the dumbest epoch ever and endure the worst PM ever. 
Abbott is just our stupidity made manifest.” 

And Tim wrote that before our taste/intellect challenged Prime Miniature made a mess of his speech about attending the “D”Day commemorations. “Rabbutt-the-Hun’s” latest gaffe is a video:  supposedly meant to commemorate the D-Day Landings where he is accompanying six or so surviving veterans to Normandy, “Rabbutt”, still unable to convert from opposition leader mode, railed about the price on Carbon, the mining tax and re-announced being open for business…. sullying the event in the most crass manner possible. At least one wit raised a few laughs commenting,  “I hope in Normandy, he doesn't say, “Stop-the-Boats!”

Oh dear… where are the Adults?

Billy “Poofter-Hunter” Heffernan brings a fake pipe-bomb into the Senate to demonstrate the poor security… like most things he’s done in parliament this stunt also fails to go off amusingly as well.

The Grown-Up’s are in charge?

Clive “Nearly-Our-Biggest-Miner” Palmer of the Pupulist- Partly-Loopy-Party arrived for the first day of parliament in his “Roller,” saying he was saving money not using a taxpayer-funded Com-car.  He didn't mention if he was putting a motion to the Senate that we all get a Roller to save money, as well.

But he had a nice dinner with “Von Ribbentrop” Turnbull (pretend Liarbril / softie) that had Andrew “Blot-on-the-Landscape” Bolt, foaming at the mouth again.

Poor Andrew… foams so often…. should he be humanely, put down?

Comments: recent…re: Von Ribbentrop T,

...wearing a better suit does not make you a better conservative.. it just means your price is higher.

Ahhh, a better dressed, Ineffectual.

....This government is descending into farce... can we have the grown-ups back now?

...whaddaya mean descending? They've never grown up in the first place.

Which is no wonder the overseas press is reporting Australia like this…

http://www.news.com.au/national/the-washington-post-says-tony-abbott-is-becoming-one-of-the-worlds-most-hated-pms/story-fncynjr2-1226928444994

or this..

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1y1ez7_tony-abbott-last-week-tonight_news

Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear. And this is from those who preached that Gillard, Rudd and Labor were dysfunctional?

Perhaps dear reader, you understand better the attraction to theatre as this reality is too painful to bear.

Cheers, Possums,

Shane