In which the pond experiences a nightmare flapping of cruel Caterist cards ...

(Above: it doesn't get much crueller, or cleverer than this, and as always there's more nightmarish Rowe here).

Speaking of nightmares, as the NSW government diligently beavers away in pursuit of a police state, and the federal government shows every sign of wanting to oblige, the Caterists today awoke to a nightmare ...

Uh huh. So the war in Syria is just a huge social experiment. Presumably the war in Iraq was also just a social experiment. No doubt the war in Afghanistan is also a rather large social experiment.

And as with social experiments, the results can be a tad murky to decipher ...

But of course the Caterists are never the types to go for subtlety or nuance or complexity.

And a nightmare simply requires an evocation of all of the direst horrors in the most simplistic, addle-brained manner, so hey ho, off we go:

It was around this point that the pond too was gripped with a nightmare. Strange British and Dutch folk had landed in Australia, and were swarming all around, screeching and clawing and scratching and flapping and falling about ...

But as always the pond was determined to swim the pool of tears, even without a mouse for company, and even knowing that things would get worse, much more worse ...

Astonishing really, when you think about it, to dismiss the war in Syria and to dub the current situation a social experiment, and to consider all the unfortunates roaming Europe at the moment mere migrants who impose unnecessary burdens on Europe ... especially as the British did such a fine job in consort with the United States in fixing Iraq ...

But let's finish this trudge through paranoia, fear, sludge and the recesses of the more furtive parts of the full to overflowing intertubes, and with a bit of luck, we will see the same situation being replicated in Australia ... with paranoia, fear and loathing the necessary and appropriate response:

Usually the Caterists might be dismissed as mere duffers and buffoons, harmless and pasty faced and perhaps with a taste for warm beer.

Today they stand shoulder to shoulder with the far right, and no doubt with half a chance will be standing at the door to sign up to the ALA ... unless they've already become founding members ... because rarely has the pond seen such a woebegotten vile piece of fear-mongering stalking the land ...

But as always, there is an upside.

Thus fortified, the pond can now diligently return to the assault on liberty and to the running of the gulags,  in a righteous way, fortified by the knowledge that the persecution of the innocent will produce just and rich rewards ....

(And as usual there's more Pope here ...)