Elizabeth Farrelly goes down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky

Elizabeth Farrelly in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

So I’m padding my way to the ocean pool for my daily swim, bringing daggy back to the eastern beaches. My way is blocked by three girls. Fetching, near-naked, self-absorbed, oiled and daft (but weren’t we all?), they’re there, in slightly different human form, most days. I’d like to call them the three graces but really, that’s not it. Grace has no business here.

Do go on, Elizabeth:

They’re photographing self and each other, pouting and preening, bending and revealing. It’d be embarrassing except you know this is designed for publication. These are #instapics in progress. The effort, voluntary bimboism for the world’s eyes, is to look permanently sex-ready. F---able.

And at last, the bit we’ve all been hanging out for — the great Farrelly leap:

Watching them, I think, are we serious? Can anyone really pretend shock that every Hollywood starlet has been bade to bed by the maestro? Come on.

Being womanly the right way. Farrelly on April 1, 2015:

Jesus’ role and resonance are so intensely female it makes me wonder. Was Jesus actually a woman? Nonsense, you’ll say. We know Jesus was a man. Know as in fact, written and drawn. Even those who reject Jesus’ divinity take his Y chromosome on trust. But still, witting or unwitting, the margin for error is considerable … At every point — pun notwithstanding — Jesus is the penetrated, not the penetrator. This was the revolution. Christ doesn’t simply oppose male power structures. He insists that the old power model — aggressive, domineering, objectifying — is illusory; that real power is openness, vulnerability, love. This is what made them so angry. It’s why he had to die … Jesus’ virtues — the humility, modesty, chastity, patience, compassion and love he consistently opposes to male agency — are the virtues of womanhood.

Up in the pantheon where she belongs. Farrelly on June 28, 2014:

I’m not especially left-wing. Not communist. Not even socialist. I simply try to work from first principles — justice, truth, beauty. Is that emotional? Was Plato hysterical? Was Jesus? Mandela?

Farrelly on May 12:

All my life, truth-telling has been the mast to which I consider myself lashed.

On 3AW yesterday:

Neil Mitchell: Can it turn your political fortunes around? Can it deal with the polls, improve the polls? Can you win the next election on this?

Malcolm Turnbull: Neil, the only poles I’m concerned about are the poles and wires that network companies are charging too much for. As you’d know, your fellow Victorian Josh Frydenberg, the Energy Minister, succeeded in getting the parliament to abolish the limited merits review, which was enabling the poles and wires companies to appeal decisions and, in effect, jack up charges.

Fun times on Sky News with the screwball comedy duo Ed Husic and Peter van Onselen on Thursday:

Husic: On another matter, I was equally disappointed that yesterday you described me, Peter van Onselen, as the younger, lesser good looking equivalent of Marco Rubio. If Americans can have an American first policy, why can’t you have an …

PVO: I think I said older …

Husic: Well, that’s definitely made it better, thanks, Peter. If Americans can have an American first policy, why can’t you have an Australian first policy in backing local pollies over people like Marco Rubio?

PVO: I think you debate as well as Marco Rubio, though, so there you go, I’ll give you a tick on that one. We’re out of time, Ed Husic, thanks for that.

Husic: I’d like to say it’s always a pleasure, I won’t.