The Tractarian Ticket

Now if only CL would restore his RSS feed. It appears I’ve missed a number of his posts due to its absence.

Good to see you back, and in fine form, C.L. Pity about the dream job falling through.

Which biography were you thinking of, Homer? There are a number of good ones.

And I agree regarding Cardinal Newman’s writing.

It is actually down at Eastwood library.
I will endeavour to find out who wrote as it is a good one albeit uncritical.

Where is Ron Mead when you need him?

Actually Newman has some very sensible ideas about Universities and also headed one up in Ireland.

tis a pity he was so wrong about biblical thinking.

that question is impossible to answer when it is so generalised.

I just had a vision of a man on the back of an elephant, wearing a pith helmut, holding a shot-gun and surfing the net on a lap-top.

“Damn you Currency Lad!”

“Say what Tiley?”

“Oh, never mind.”

Whatever, PG. I’m in Queensland – I live in Brisbane. No one’s forcing you to read my writing, if you don’t like it, then I’d suggest you spare yourself the trouble and the resulting indignation.

I think you mean “banana bender” by the way.

Mmm…smoothies.

Darn it, Australia doesn’t have enough Big things, Mark Latham had the big pledge he signed at the last election (which came across to the voting audience as a big stunt). If you win a tennis tournament you might get one of these big cheques.

Luckily there are some big-things to visit but I’m sure there are many other biguns we can visit. What about a BIG HILL’S HOIST, a BIG BBQ, a BIG CANE TOAD (just don’t let the bugger interstate) and a BIG BUNYIP. There is a list of big monuments here, including my faves the “big peanut” and the “big yabby”.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~arundell/bigthing.htm

Maybe it’s the ironist streak but there is something strangely appealing in these structures. And I’m not normally a fan because of the self-effacing quality of many giant-sized monuments, but there is something cheering when you drive past one of these kitsch constructions. I guess that’s one good thing about Australia, that I’m not referring to the statues that were such a part of the structure of a totalitarian system (whether statues of Stalin, Salazar, Saddam or who-ever else).

Its a huge relief that Australia wouldn’t tolerate this sort of ridiculous veneration. Surely, if someone wanted to build a BIG BJELKE in Brisbane it would probably last about as long as Saddam’s statue in Idaho.

Which leads me to my tale, for surely there are greater things to be concerned about. It seems that from my travails I remember an encounter with one such giant symbol of Australiana. For it was in Goulborn that like Conrad’s Marlowe I would visit the Big Merino, which is forced to live without any accompanying big genitals. It was here all those years ago that it all first triggered a small concern. For the statue was not like the rams in my agriculture class, who made characters in D.H. Lawrence novels seem like eunuchs. From my childhood I could recall the ram who had had its way with all the ewes, these poor little sheep who were without the “darling I’ve got a headache” retort and who had no Emily’s List affilitation to fall back upon.

Which darn-well got me thinking some years later about an explanation. And then finally it dawned upon me, what if the Giant Merino’s lack of testicles was all part of the giant political correctness conspiracy. Then it all clicked, it all made sense. We had all assumed that political correctness had had its roots in the PJ Keating era. But you see it had all started just a few hundred kilometres down the road from the national capital in Goulburn.

For I can attest that this structure was to be a PC trial run that would test how the population would respond to new PC artifices that were to spawn across marginal seats nationwide. Soon from this grand plan these structures would emit subtle signals that would make the Liberal Party unelectable. And some time later these Svengalis could go on and build their mighty machine – a Big Bertha and a Death Star all in one, a GIANT GOUGH 50 foot tall.

But fortunately for us freedom-loving people, this was not to happen, I will have to save the explanations for a later date. But from my researches I have however made some startling discoveries for whoever was involved in this perfidious construction was obviously under the pervasive influence of the femi-nazis. For it was to be through this sheep that all of Australia would follow the path and be emasculated by masculinity theorists long before “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” or the advent of the metrosexual (David Bowie was years away).

Soon through the connotations of this mighty sheep, the family unit would dissolve and we’d move into camps of worshippers that would follow the creed of a new form of pure being. And after much prayer and reflection, we would be reborn with a new sheep wisdom – we’d be sheared of all our identity and a new destiny would befall us.

But time is of the essence, so I will have to cut of this discussion for I have to report this in its entirety to Christopher Pearson. For surely this is a matter of far greater urgency than all that saga over the National Mesueum of Australia. History has been fabricated for far too long, alas poor ram who was so cruelly neutered.

that very good biography of Newman was by Ian Ker.

It is not critical nor does he attempt to cover any doctrinal issues in depth.
A good one for CL!!

Stephen’s my second nomination for comment of the year…