The pond joins Miranda Devine's campaign to bring back decent dictators, and celebrates the ongoing work of the Hitler Youth in North Queensland ...

(Above: a recent picture of GetUp boys on parade).

So just who is the Australian Senator who compared GetUp to Hitler Youth, and so set off a bit of frothing and foaming about the unilateral breaching of Godwin's Law? (GetUp outraged by Hitler Youth comments).

Oh we almost forgot to add, yes jung GetUp girls, it's not just for the boys:

So come on down Senator the Hon Ian Macdonald and introduce yourself:

I am a proud and passionate North Queenslander, having spent most of my life in the north. My wife Lesley and I live in Ayr, 80km south of Townsville. I have offices in Ayr and Townsville. (Thanks for dropping by my website).

Ah proud and passionate North Queenslanders up there in the deep north, delivering stereotypes and cliches to the world. Lay it on us Senator Macdonald:

I have a vision for Australia: a nation continuing its unique style of Australian comradeship, its strength and purpose, its peace, stability and prosperity, while becoming a sophisticated, caring and intelligent leader in the part of the world in which we are geographically placed-an Australia whose basic strengths and endowments enable us to concentrate on social, humanitarian and environmental responsibilities into the next 100 years. (First Speech).

Indeed. Let's just hope the unique far north, with its unique style of branding Australians as Nazis, isn't ruined by those folk from GetUp and their peculiar attitudes to gypsies, gays and Jews, and instead it will keep on being run by sophisticated intelligent leaders with an engaging way with words.

Speaking of dictators, the pond was recently moved by the bereavement experienced by Miranda the Devine in Our scorn for the truly deserving:

Gaddafi was a brutal dictator who promoted terrorism abroad - but are we really better off with him gone?

Indeed. Of course back when it was Saddam Hussein, it would be hard to imagine the Devine scribbling:

Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who promoted terrorism abroad - but are we really better off with him gone?

No, no, back in those days, it was all Spare us the pity for Iraq's ex-tyrant:

I am all for compassion and pity but what kind of message is the Vatican sending about mass-murdering dictators?

It turns out that the Arab Spring is really the Arab Winter because of the rise of the Islamists, so let's get behind the mass-murdering dictators and pull together as a team:

Syria is the next target for regime change. Yet Australian priest and scholar Paul Stenhouse, recently returned from a visit there, warns of the consequences of destabilising the Assad regime, imperfect though it is.

The Devine is shocked and appalled, as even the Liberal party fails her:

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says he has no plans to introduce special treatment for Christians.

Naturally the Devine rant produced a solid set of reader responses, many worthy contenders for the Cut & Paste Trophy offered up to the world on the basis that publishing readers' thoughts makes newspapers guilty by association (A step-by-step guide to manufacturing a story, c/o The Oz).

Devine's commentary contenders started off with a corker:

I have always considered it the wrong thing to allow any Afghan males into the country for any reason. Our boys and those of America are fighting and dying to give them a peaceful life. Apparently its’ beyond them to fight for themselves. They come here and moan and complain about everything instead of proving they are worth allowing into our country.

Well played Mia, especially with that throw away line about the guv'mint hating the dinki di diggers, and we'd like to have quoted at length a strong offering from Stan of Concord, predicting the imminent start of World War III, but the judges had their hearts set on solomani of HK:

Gadaffi was a product of his culture - a strong man ruling a barbaric people. Now we will have a strong man, ruling a barbaric people in a theocracy. We shouldnt be helping these “nations” at all as they are antithetical to everything the West stands for (both good and bad). We should open our borders to any Christian seeking refuge from the “Moslem Spring”.

That use of the word Moslem is a nice ageist touch, fresh from the nineties, solomani of HK, and led the pond into a reverie thinking about potato, potahto, Muslim, Moslem ...

But back to the Devine for a moment, because it turns out that poor old Gaddafi was just doing right by the world and his citizens, and all that nonsense about terrorism was just ill-informed common gossip:

An Amnesty report in June cast doubt on many of the horror stories out of Libya that were used to justify the NATO intervention, of mass rape and human rights abuses by Gaddafi loyalists.

You see, the bunch of Libyans who've taken over the country are the real terrorists, and Islamic to boot:

Gaddafi had warned of al-Qaeda’s role among the agitators destabilising his country but the West scoffed.

And the real explanation for this sorry state of affairs?

The NATO intervention in Libya was another “virtuous war”, humanitarian regime change pursued by Obama and Rudd. It was urged on by none other than Greens leader Bob Brown. But beware a war supported by the Left.

Oh dear, yet another caring, sharing loyal and loving dictator done and dusted by the wretched Left. Strange, and there we were thinking it was leftists who loved commie dictators.

Thanks to the Devine we now know you can pick and stick, and if a dictator is on the right side of politics, why then he can be a jolly good dictator.

Will no one spare a thought for the average right wing dictator, just doing their best for their people and their country, and only rolling in obscene wealth and power, because that's just like a top notch CEO at Qantas demanding his fair share.

Well it got the pond to thinking, and really the only way to sort out Europe is to bring back Franco.

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde, you will recall, was a kindly caring dictator who gave the Catholic church the inside running, kept women at home and in their place (which would see the Devine off doing proper womanly things), and was tireless in his vigilant approach to godless, atheistic ,secularist, leftist, anarchist, artistic Catalonian commie bastards.

And if Franco comes back, a little aged and worn perhaps, but still you can run a country from a mausoleum or a crypt if you try hard enough, then surely it's time to bring back Hitler and Mussolini and Nicolae Ceausescu and Augusto Pinochet and ... well the list could go on for quite a while, but it goes without saying Gaddafi should be at the head of the queue, thanks to Miranda the Devine's redemption of the man.

As John Donne noted:

No dictator is an Iland, intire of itselfe;

every dictator is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;

if a Gaddafi Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Africa (and Europe) is the lesse,

as well as if a Promontorie were,

as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine owne were;

any dictator's death diminishes me,

especially beloved Colonel Gaddafi,

because I am involved in Mankinde;

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee Gaddafi ... in the Devine's columns ...

By golly, that John Donne was prescient, and if you want the unmangled version of the text, you can find it here.

Now all we can do is wait patiently for Miranda the Devine to write a column defending the current dictators ruling Iran, and explaining how mere anarchy would be loosed upon the world if these tyrants were to be removed ...

So is there any upside in this 'keep the dictators we love' movement sparked by the Devine?

Well with the return of tyrants and tyranny, those Hitler Youth lovers at GetUp will be mightily pleased, and Senator Ian Macdonald will be found to have been on the wrong side of history ...

Finally it's off to our beloved Australian, with its workshop now sheltered behind a paywall, and more tasty succulent items in our "pay for that, how much do they want, tell 'em they're dreaming" segment:

Pay to read servile Hedley Thomas trotting out standard News Ltd spin, when I could be off at Crikey reading When The Oz muscles the AFP, that's a story ?

Tell 'em they're dreaming.

And now for a bonus:

Malcolm Fraser behind a paywall?

They want punters to stump up to read the thoughts of the former chairman? Can someone tell 'em that's being a tad optimistic? Even that they might be dreaming? Some kind of weird nightmare?

Maintain the rage!