the pontifications of pompuss

Mark Sainsbury really has to retire from his position as presenter of TVNZ's Close Up.    His series last week on beneficiaries was an absolute disgrace to the so-called profession of journalism.

He interviewed 3 beneficiaries living on welfare payments: a nurse who could no longer work because of chronic pain; a couple on sickness benefits who were too unwell to hold down jobs and - wait for it - a woman with six children from four different fathers.

The nurse and the sickness beneficiaries don't cause me a problem - after all that is what the welfare system is  for, i.e. people who need extra help when they find themselves in unfortunate circumstances often beyond their control.

However the lady with the six children is another matter.    Why have six if you can't feed them?    And where are those four absent fathers?      She reminds me of the feral underneath the summerhouse who has litter after litter and never thinks of the future.

My slaves are incensed too.   They think that  a benefit payment should only be for the absolute basics but nowadays people seem to think that it should be enough to run a car (what's wrong with buses or bicycles?) and a TV set (what's wrong with the local library or a deck of cards?).  

People have forgotten how to cope.   When the City Mission solicit goods for the food bank they ask for toilet paper!!!!   The she slave mutters that her West Coast Scots granny never bought it - the family were wiped with cut up squares of newspaper.     Come to think of it, that's probably the best use for some of what is produced by the media.

While I sprawled on the foot of the bed this morning listening to the radio  waiting for the slaves to wake up and prepare my breakfast I heard the most astonishing interview.

The latest addition to the Rich List which is published annually by a business paper, announced that the gap between the rich and poor is growing wider.     He said he would be happy to pay more tax to ensure the poor have good schools and hospitals. (The idiot doesn't realise that if politicians had more money to play with they'd probably spend it on hiring more staff and platinum plating their pensions before they thought of spending it on voters.)

I have a Radical and better suggestion.     If he wants to pay more tax then let him.     If however a slave doesn't want to pay above a reasonable minimum they shouldn't have to.    Seems fair doesn't it.     Mr Rich with a guilty conscience pays more to the government and others choose what to do with their money.

Having taken my morning swipe at dogs earlier today I am in a happy mood and can concentrate on another of my pet peeves.

Researchers in Africa (where do they get the money for this sort of thing when it could be spent on far worthier topics) have discovered that most attacks by lions happen when the moon is waning and there isn't much light.    I could have told them that for free and they wouldn't have needed to go to the bother of applying for a research grant!

Of course feline hunters hunt and attack in darkness.    Whoever heard of a cat going ratting at the full moon?     We slink up on our prey when it is dark so as to surprise them and lions are no different from cats.   Well they are cats aren't they so of course they behave like cats.

Honestly, so many researchers have air for brains and faff around spending money on the obvious and wasting everyone's time.

What a super girlpuss!   

A (not so) kind friend has sent me the following definition for Pompus from the Urban Dictionary:

Need I say that I am offended......deeply.       To add insult to injury, the UD smart farts can't even spell my name properly.

Since I am painfully honest I should add that I see nothing wrong at all in being egotistical and vain.   In fact I think they are positive qualities and a perfectly reasonable reaction to the foolishness of the world.

I sneer at such stupidities.....oh drool, is that food I see..........

I'm giving thanks.   It seems that a  group of snow leopards has been discovered in a wild and rather  inaccessible area of Afghanistan's mountains.  

Because this area is so remote few  people, if any, live there and the war has not affected the terrain or the animals who make it their home.    Long may it stay that way.

It occurs to me that if the endangered animal search team who caught these creatures on their hidden cameras had had the sense to keep their mouths shut about it the leopards would be even safer.  

Some creatures just don't know which side their bread is buttered on.    Today's newspaper carries the tale of a man who was rescuing an exhausted seabird on a beach in Wales when the creature pecked at his face, puncturing an eyeball.     The unfortunate good Samaritan needed 11 stitches to hold his eye back in place and may be blind in that eye for life.       What a way to repay someone who was helping you.     That gull is truly a bird-brain and deserves to be cat food.     

The she slave told me that it was Cat's Protection League Collection Day at the supermarket so she bought an inferior cut of meat for me and gave the left over cash to the feline unfortunates.       Well, honestly.

 I know I shouldn't mind but I do.     I really don't like brisket as it takes an age to chew my way through the gristle and I, along with my teeth, am growing older.    However I did get salmon sushi for lunch , so all is not lost...........yet.

By the Great Cat , she's becoming altogether too casual in her approach to my needs and I'm going to have to find a way of improving her behaviour.      Time to try a Major Sulk?