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.

Joining the Dots on Dies Irae.

Shane in new bathroom

G'day Possums, remember the bathroom? 

Well it's now finished and functioning.

Some before and after pics

before..

After

After

It became a bit of a saga but I think it looks terrific. Much thanks go to local crew, Eureka Glass ( 1300 330 275)  for their extensive work and the fitting of the panels.

Eureka Glass

Eureka Glass 

 Will Cardinal Pell-Pot, The Graceless, apologise to those whose terrible plights he ignored?  No... he knows that that  admission means guilt and has admitted as much. His ambition, the corporate structures and his advancement in a medieval business are more important than ethics, morality and personal priestly integrity.

Henry 2nd is rolling in his grave with laughter that he couldn't fix a similar problem in the C12th.

"Pell shared a house with Ridsdale, Pell sat on a committee of priests who made decisions to move Ridsdale from parish to parish, Pell was vicar for education when Ridsdale was a school chaplain, and Pell accompanied Ridsdale to court when he was finally charged. Pell had more reasons than most to turn his mind to what Ridsdale was perpetrating."' Kristina Keneally on Cardinal George Pell's form for blaming everyone but himself.

Pell was also Rabid-the-Hun's spiritual advisor and confessor.

Deis Irae is coming for both!

Another of Abbott's brilliant appointments bites the dust: Michael Lawler, Kathy Jackson's partner has resigned his $400,000.00 p.a. position as workplace relations commissioner after not putting forward a defence of his nine months paid sick leave to support Jackson in the enquiry into trade union corruption where it seems that Jackson herself might be the only one with real "form."

Remember Rabid-the-Hun lauding Jackson as a beacon of quality in the union movement as she stitched up Craig Thompson over his misuse of $25,000.00 of union funds?

Well she's being investigated over allegedly rorting $1,250,000.00!

It has been widely reported that Rabid-the-Hun in another demonstration of "No sniping" has leaked a Defence "White Paper" to embarrass Truffles Turnbull. Apart from the "loose cannon" methodology, the ruling rabble again demonstrates its appallingly juvenile approach to leading a country and a completely arrogant disdain of service to the nation.

The Australian’s foreign editor Greg "Toady" Sheridan, the author of the report from Rupert "The Ugly American" Murdoch's propaganda sheet, and an Abbott loyalist from Rabid's wall thumping student days , said in a fiercely inappropriate defense that ­Abbott was not his source.... or Capt Catlic Andrews... it was a little birdie.... and it is perfectly OK for the Liarbrils to play around leaking secret documents for personal political purposes.

Even Nikki Savva, hardly a cheer-leader for the left has weighed in with a book co-authored with Laurie Oakes: "The Road to Ruin. How Abbott and Credlin destroyed a Government."  Detailing the complete dysfunction of the first two years of this rabble's rule, much is being made of the "intimacy" between the two and its subsequent alienation of minister and backbencher alike.

That "Bloody Idiot Credlin" opined when asked to resign her position that:  "He couldn't do the job without me," only further indicates the level of this alarmingly evil man's incompetence.  

More evidence of a  mongrel ruling rabble's behaviour which is as tawdry to each other as it is to the country should surprise no-one and further, that the rats are turning on each other on the sinking rust-bucket, SS Liarbril is not surprising either.

This is the IPA dream, a  Free Market and Free Enterprise in action....!

Then there was the farce of treasurer Mk2, "The Drone" Morrison working himself up in a lather over Labor's plan to reduce negative gearing on homes by referring to of a BIS Shrapnel study.

Oops... the report was commissioned BEFORE Labor released it's policy; was not specifically aimed at it; and was full of errors! More incompetence from this policy free, ruling rabble!

The Greens have decided to "do-a-Democrat" and support the ruling rabble with changes to the Senate voting system; a move which will effectively eliminate the minor parties and entrench the Liarbrils as having control of the Senate in perpetuity.

As that worked out so well for the Democrats after Meg Lees supported the Liarbrils bringing in the GST, where in a few years they were wiped out as an alternative party, it's difficult to fathom why the Greens are also hell bent on self-immolation. But it does mean we'll have to be more assiduous in how we cast our vote in the Senate this time around.

Hoo-roo petals,

Shane.

Going from bad to worse...

G’day Possums,,, here’s a shot of where I live… taken early this morning…

Greendale Landscape

Random Wombat Droppings …or how we are going from bad to worse and to hell in a handbasket

It has always struck me how angry the "right" are. I think it's born of the frustration that aspirationals must feel in that that which they aspire to is unattainable because of the political and social structure. Greed, selfishness and short-sightedness combine with their aspiration to engender fear of any "social" contract which might limit their individual advancement and at the same time they are constantly reminded  that the system of their aspiration is stacked against them.

But then, by the same token the hate I feel toward the likes of the clowns from the IPA, Blot-on-the-Landscape, Rabid-the-Hun, Loopy Leyonhjelm et al, is born a similar frustration that these mongrels get their way at the expense of society as a whole, most of the time.

The “Coots-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe”…the IPA is running the show. Malcon Turdball-Fop will be kept as the Ruler of this Ruling Rabble because electorally he’s safe… but otherwise he’ll have to tow the Murdoch, Rinehart, Miners and Bankers line. What sovereignty Australia had will be finally eliminated and every single public service will be privatised.

 Le Jongleur Roskam will the Chair of the Board and Malcon will become permanent faux PM.

“Far from deserving praise, the half-reversal of CSIRO and NICTA funding cuts simply highlights the need for the Turnbull Liberals to review all of their cuts to science, research and innovation which include:
$107m from the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program
$75m from the ARC
$27.5m from ANSTO
$7.8m from AIMS
$16.1m from Geoscience Australia
$20m from the Bureau of Meteorology
$120m from DSTO
$174m from the Research Training Scheme"

Triggs is “Woman of the Year” A beacon of sanity in a nation fast losing its way in an IPA thought bubble.

Ahhh... Liarbril sagacity, management and innovation... myths that make the Dreamtime look like scientific fact!

Buggered the NBN, blown the budget and rorted the parliamentary entitlements  like there was no tomorrow. With the biggest leaner, Joe “Eleventy, Cereal/Toyota Killer “ Hockey getting a job in Washington…. I didn’t realise we hated the Yanks that much…but at least it will limit his potential for ongoing damage to Australia.

The Paris Climate talks have shown that Oz is now third last in the world in our emission targets…. From leading the world to third last of 128 Nations in just 2 ½ short years is quite a Liarbril achievement….everything they touch they destroy…

We need Rabid-the-Hun to continually remind us just how dysfunctional the thinking in the Liarbril party is in selecting these anti-social mongrels.

He is still talking delusional nonsense about being leader again… and making stupefyingly silly remarks about the need for a Muslim “reformation” and that we good xtians are the culture to emulate…. Hmmm… right!

Cardinal “The Graceless” Pell-Pot is allegedly too ill to front the Royal Commission into child abuse….fearful perhaps, of his own crucifixion?

Mal “Chicken Thighs” Brough and fellow mongrel conspirators, Pyne

”the Whyne” and now Wyatt “The Boy” Roy are smelling like the shits they are over “Slippery” Pete’s political assassination….criminal charges, anyone?

Bronnie “Kero-Bath-Chopper” Bishop has decided that she is going at 73, to stick around in parliament to help fight terrorism … which terrorists, she didn’t say but it could be her own party…. Or it may be to match her colleague of same name, Jules “Asbestos” Bishop’s rather extravagant $30,0000.00 flight from a party with her B/F for a meeting in Canberra….Jules hasn’t heard of video-conferencing.

There ya go… how Oz is going to hell in a hand-basket care of the IPA.

Hoo-roo Petals

Shane.

..being a star

 

...being a star…

G’day petals,

We’ve been doing some work for a new performance by Ballet Theatre Australia

Shane editing

which has also included a video for the intermission so here’s a small clip as a taster…

http://youtu.be/0RhZ2XF7nkY

 or

http://youtu.be/ak90VwEL09I

This was an interesting exercise as I felt quite uncomfortable moving in as close as I was to the dancers; normally I would attempt to be more “fly-on-wall” and not interfere in the progress of rehearsal or class.

Another point was shooting with a “filmic” sense and constantly thinking of the rhythm of the whole and not just for a single shot.

program cover

performance is on June 14^th  so check BTA’s website for details.

 The Weekly Wombat Droppings

Asked by the Tardis State’s (where-all-goes-backwards) enquiry into child abuse why it has taken so long for the Catholic church to admit that it had covered up these allegations Melbourne’s Archbishop Hart said with a smile, “Well, better late than never.”

How’s that for contrition and an example of pastoral care?

We await with interest the response from Cardinal Pell.

Liarbrils from the Tardis State (where-all-goes-backwards) at their State conference, oddly, backed away from pursuing the idea of selling off the ABC and SBS.

Perhaps the head clown of the coots with queer ideas (the IPA), John Roskam whose gang came up with the idea in the first place “got the message” from the talk-back t’other day on 774? Of course, it’s harder for him to control the rudeness of constantly interrupting and talking over other panellists, as nasally high-pitched bad manners seem to be de rigueur for the loopy far right.

Be careful of these types who extol democracy and freedom and still follow the economics that gave the world the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Ford is bailing out of Oz. Perhaps their plant and machinery could be appropriated as compensation for all the taxpayer money they have been given over the years?

Cheers,

Shane

 The Australian Index

...in search of Giselle

Shane in Ballet booties.....

Hello Possums,

Once, leaving a performance of the RSC and Peter Brook’s version of “A Mid- Summer Night's Dream”  I noticed the public on the street looking quite unreal;  ill-dressed,  poorly co-ordinated.  
The reality: A  450 year-old play had been more powerfully relevant and affecting in a theatre.  I remember Puck delivering his epilogue almost sotto voce, to a audience of 2500 with his legs dangling in "the pit"... there was not a sound from the 2500.
Magic.

 

Photographing a rehearsal of Giselle recently, similar thoughts struck me. How can a performance (ballet in particular) about young women who die before their wedding day, who come out of their graves and dance until first light, dancing to death any hapless male who crosses their path, have any semblance of veracity or relevance in a contemporary world?

Giselle rehearsal

I think  because Giselle’s  1841 creators followed Noverre’s dictum that libretto, music, choreography and staging all follow the same path. And probably more importantly, Giselle is a work of its time; a ballet which seems to encapsulate the Romantic artist’s notion of a spirit of and in nature, ethereal sentiment and otherworldly less known values that are perhaps based in a earlier animistic European culture. 

Historically then the Wilis are really very frightening. They act without reason. They are a force that cannot be interacted with, only submitted to.

Giselle rehearsal

There were moments during the rehearsal watching the Wilis surrounding Hilarion when you sensed his movements were only prompted by cold vapour rushing past, unseen but inexorable and malevolent.

Giselle rehearsal, Hilarion

 

Or when the Wilis in arabesque cross the stage in opposite lines, it felt as if a chill mist was slowly enveloping the area; draining all warmth and life away.

Giselle rehearsal, Hilarion

It may be a “Romantic” ballet and seem “pretty-pretty” but it’s really a horror story in the realm of Frankenstein, Dracula or even Alice in Wonderland or Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and fitting musically with Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony and the art-works of William Blake. 

Giselle, in her wheeling arabesque, translating into movement a descriptive sense of being here and not here and the mental confusion of being not alive but not quite dead....

Poster for performance

In short a bloody good watch and good art.

Wombat Droppings

Ohh Possums, where to start?

Slippery Peter’s accuser, Ashby has withdrawn most of the charges he’s laid except two of sexual harassment. Queried as to why he didn’t seek to resolve his concerns “in-house” through normal channels he said he was too afraid of Slippery Pete and the Govt.

Which presumably, is why the press and opposition sighted his allegations before his accused did. 

Hmmmm ..I think I’ll start calling him Godwin. .....and Mr Whyne, on balance of evidence, a liar.

It strikes me too, that Mr.Rabbit should have been taught at some stage by his mentor Pell,  “…..that he among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone”.

Senator Heffernan (Liarbril) has been accused of assaulting an (allegedly) bent staffer and calling him a “poofter”. Heffie was in strife a few years back with another seemingly homophobic attack on the then Chief Justice of the High Court, Michael Kirby.

Mr Rabbit doesn’t think it’s a sacking offence…just a distraction thought up by the Labor lot to protect Thomo…

Heffie must be a bit disconcerted as it seems at the moment that eligibility for the Lliarbrils might well be having to be gay….. as well as vicious.

In the State of Tardis

I don’t know what it is in the air on the Peninsular but another State Liarbril down that way is in strife. This time it’s Geoff Shaw, accused of letting his tax-payer funded parliamentary car entitlements to be used for his hardware business on interstate trips.

Member for Frankston says he might have inadvertently let someone have the keys…..duhhh… and also posted embarrassing missives to his wife …too publicly.

What is it with these Liarbrils and their constant bad taste?

“The minister in charge of the state government's so-called ''integrity agenda'' has been caught withholding information from Parliament about his own portfolios.
Documents show Liberal (sic) frontbencher Andrew McIntosh has sat on answers to questions he was meant to provide - sometimes for months after his department briefed him.
The practice appears to be common for the Corrections Minister, who is also in charge of reforms designed to improve transparency and integrity in public office, including Ted Baillieu's long-awaited anti-corruption commission freedom-of-information reforms”.
“………opposition spokeswoman Jill Hennessy accused Mr McIntosh of not meeting the transparency test when it came to his own job. ''Minister McIntosh is the government leader of the house. It is very bad form for him not to be replying to questions on notice from the Parliament. Secondly, he is the minister for public integrity yet these documents demonstrate that he has dithered and delayed on providing information,'' she said.
The documents, which Labor obtained though freedom of information, show Ms Hennessy tried to get Mr McIntosh to answer questions about Victoria's prison system. When he did not provide the answers, she lodged a freedom of information request, only to discover he had been withholding the details. 

An office set up to advise the Premier on climate change policy has had its staff cut nearly in half since Ted Baillieu's election.
The climate change branch within the Department of Premier and Cabinet - responsible for dealing with Canberra over carbon pricing and overseeing the state's climate policies - has had its staff reduced from 14 before the 2010 election to eight, documents show”.     “The Age”

A recent study has found that Australia has the highest number of problem gamblers in the world and that 12% of total Govt. revenue is from gambling.
There are two gaming venues in the Western suburb of Braybrook that has a population of the most disadvantaged in Victoria but also combined revenues of $16,000,000 p.a. from the venues.

38 / 39 applications for more gaming machines are successful, despite local council opposition.

TAFE funding has been slashed to ribbons... the disadvataged will have less options for future work and as private schools are recieving more funding for 1/3 of the schoool population  ...go figure. Teaching staff will be lost, programs cut or diminished.... I did say these Liarbrils lack imagination....what they destroy in five minutes takes twenty years to re-build.   Time to re-define the BOGAN I think.

Professor Kuruvilla George, who was Victoria's deputy chief psychiatrist (former Christian missionary) a member of a doctors group known as “Doctors for the Family” made a submission to Senate inquiry declaring opposition to gay marriage stating that gays had unhealthier children than "straight" parents. He was also on the Equal Opportunity Commission  …go figure… equal what?

Deputy Premier Peter (Ronnie) Ryan (also Police Minister) said he saw no problems with George’s statements as they were only personal statements…. Really, Pete?

Police this week ordered private vehicles to be used as road blocks to stop a speeding driver on a freeway. Crash happened, many cars damaged. Fortunately no injuries to public (one man who's car was hit was in it with partner and children)… go figure what sort of mind-set had occasioned that little piece of tactical brilliance… perhaps the same sort as a Police Minister who seems not to know the difference between public office and private views.

Cheers, Petals

.....into the distance

G’day Possums,

I’m in hiding.                                    Come closer so I can whisper why.

Ok…..Petals;  last post was very successful .. lots of "looks" which I found surprising…but then I read that ASIO is delving into all  those who criticise the coal industry…..  mining, exports etc… so we’ll have to be a liiiitle quiet till things settle down. Also Peter Ryan’s name came up a couple of times as a search tag and as he’s not very pretty we shall lie low in the burrow.

It’s been a bit of a week Bob Brown, Greens leader resigning and all… everyone was taken by surprise. Prime Minister Julia Gillard was reasonably gracious; Tony Abbott his consistent self: negative, mealy-mouthed, petty and ungracious.

Brown should be proud of what he’s achieved so far and I hope that his successor as leader Christine Milne will continue the Greens habit of talking issues and not vested interests.

                                           Lal-Lal Station.  A typical country station which really is used no longer

There has been a push to have a Royal Commission into the number of suicides (some 40, so far) of people who were abuse victims of Catholic clergy.

Premier Baillieu is doing what he does best… prevaricating and dithering although it was reported “ …..that he was on the brink…” 
Stop Press: Baillieu today (17/4) issued a statement that a Parliamentary enquiry into these matters would be held.... not a Royal Commission, not a Judicial inquiry but a farce with six parliamentarians: four of whom are in their first term in Parliament!  State Attorney General, Robert Clarke said that the more relaxed format would be more victim friendly. Hey Bobby... the victims you're enquiring into are dead.   
Good grief...this lot are worse than a joke.
Melbourne’s Archbishop Hart when interviewed on the matter obsfucated with consummate practised skill.

                                          The Lonliness of the Long Distance Transmitter

Richard Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell went head to head on TV last week. Like the one he mentors (Tony Abbott), Pell “played the man” and in front of Dawkins’ fairly cool and analytic approach looked sillier and sillier. Pells’ supporters in the audience were just plain school-children-ish too in their laughter at some of Dawkins’ statements that they couldn’t see the point of or understand, blinded I suppose by their “faith”. Pell got rather personal at times and you sensed a viciousness in the man that is contrary to what he espouses.

STOP PRESS

The Baillieu Govt...(that's increasingly an oxymoron, Govt. that is...) has just announced (16/4) that the "star" rating for energy efficiency on homes is to be abandoned. It seems that a market driven approach to energy efficiency will be more effective than a mandated one. So forget solar hot water or power, double glazing, more insulation,water tanks etc., just buy more air conditioners and build more coal fired power stations. The head of the MBA says that the "6" star rating   " .... has gone too far". So sustainability is to be abandoned on the basis that house prices will fall. What Bullshit! 
And didn't Baillieu qualify as an Architect? He must be a severe disappointment to his lecturers or did he get his degree in a "show-bag"?
This is a perfect example of the Liarbril concept of "leadership"... go backwards, do nothing and re-build the Titanic. 

See-ya,

Shane.