In which the pond tries to avoid the dog botherer but ends up in the morass of Iraq with him ...

First a few distractions, before the pond takes up the onerous burden of spending some quality time with the dog botherer, going about his weekend business of maintaining the fear and the loathing and the hate.

This was an interesting effort by the reptiles of Oz.

Ah, the story might have been removed, but not the header ...

And now for a parochial Pope cartoon ... and more Pope here ...

Yes, there's a nice play on the way a country that runs vile gulags proclaims itself as an oasis of gentility and generosity and tolerance in the Pacific ... as prattling Polonius did only this morning, preening himself on his nicely heated hot rock in reptile la la land ...

But as for the parochial element at play in that papal visual treat, it helps to see the Canberra source ...

Though perhaps this view is even more to the point:

Yes, that fence and the air of ruination and despair helps conjure up an Oz gulag nicely ... or Canberra, if you're a long suffering wearer of cardigans ...

But sob, enough of that, because duty and the dog botherer calls, and it's fear and loathing time ...

Yes, yes, but first let us speak of the dog botherer's head being stuck in the sand.

Please allow the pond to do a little flashback to earlier times, courtesy of an Australian Story transcript here:

Iraq really forms the backdrop of my whole time with Alexander really. A few weeks after I started working with him the international debate about Iraq and what needs to be done began. So I’ve seen Alexander where the Iraq issue from its infancy from beginning to talk about what we should do as an international community to combat Saddam Hussein and the threat he posed right through the United Nations process of resolutions and trying to get Iraq to comply with those resolutions to the formation of the Coalition and the start of the, the war. I was with Alexander when he went in only a few weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein to see the newly liberated Iraq. There was a certain amount of obviously satisfaction at that stage that that had happened and so quickly and of course Alexander’s dealt with all the aftermath. The ongoing violence the great success of the elections and democratic process the fantastic optics of seeing people embrace democracy there and then the horrible reality of that being undermined by violence and I’ve been back into Iraq with him since and so Alexander’s really had a huge focus on Iraq over the past five years. But it’s just been the backdrop its just one issue it’s been very, very hard and at times its been very, very difficult to mount the argument because it’s a difficult argument to mount and you really have to run a complicated debate often with people. It’s difficult for people to understand how crucial this battle this struggle in the middle east for their own security and Australia. That’s one of our great challenges as a government is to explain to people how this affects their security and the security of the entire world and, and that’s, that’s a debate we’re still running today. So Alexander’s been at the forefront of that debate through the success and through the terrible set backs and he’s committed to it today and it still takes up a lot of his time today. But on top of that there’s all the other issues you have to deal with. 
There are there are dark moments in an issue like Iraq because some of the terrible things that have happened but I’ve never had any doubts and I’ve never seen Alexander have any doubts about the fact that this was the right thing to do and needed to be done and needs to be seen through and one now because I suppose he has a context and those in our office we have we have a good understanding of the context of this and we always think about the consequences of not doing anything and that’s what’s often missing from debate. People think that if we don’t have you know if we all ran away from Iraq then it wouldn’t be there. Well the question is what would be there? What would be the issue you’re dealing with there and is that worse than what we’ve got now? Of course there are dark moments terribly dark moments when you hear news of Australians being killed or Iraqi’s being killed, there are huge numbers of Iraqi’s being killed by terrorists and you never become immune to that. You see it as a set back for, for what Iraqi’s want and you see it against the context of being there and meeting people you know. I’ve sat there in meetings Alexander and I have sat there with Iraqi’s showing us the ink on their fingers you know with pride you know they’ve gone out and lined up and voted and risked being attacked by terrorists because they wanted to vote a government in. It’s tremendously uplifting to meet those people and see their pride and you know that’s what they want. We don’t see enough of that we see the terrible consequences of a terrorist attack the next day that’s designed to thwart those people but to the Iraqi people themselves to have the chance to meet them and see the way they’re embracing this you know it gives you heart. But the dark moments are there when there is violence and, and when Douglas Wood was, was a hostage and you’re working day and night with the Department and Alexander’s working day and night with the Department to really to be honest there were many times we thought that it was almost hopeless but to have success there was just wonderful so you have you have moments of high encouragement as well as well as the dark moments the moments of sadness and I think that the trick is to maintain an even path through that. You have those moments you have those thoughts about it but it’s a matter of being clear in your head in what you’re trying to achieve and keep doing the work.

Let's just repeat that last line ...

...it’s a matter of being clear in your head in what you’re trying to achieve and keep doing the work.

Well we know now what they were trying to achieve. A middle east engulfed in war, chaos and confusion, and terror spreading around the world, and they keep on doing that work ...

As long ago as 2003, the pond, which tries to avoid having its head in the sand, or up its fundament in the style of the dog botherer, wondered what blow-back there might be further down the road, after the west got involved for specious reasons on the side of the Shia in their battle with the Sunni and  a cruel dictator ... no doubt because they'd taken such strong steps to sort out North Korea...

There were others who felt the same ... some describe the anti-war protests in 2003 as the largest in human history ...

It did no good, and now we know what its proponents and supporters achieved ... and it took only a further eight years from that Australian Story interview for it to become horribly clear that the dog botherer really does have his head stuck where the light rarely shines ...

But enough of these pleasantries and distractions. Let's bite the bullet and get down with it ... but warning, it's a long rant, and it's perfectly acceptable to put the computer to sleep and go for a walk in the sun, and frolic with children or animals and simply be pleased to be alive, which can't sadly be said for the victims of terror and war around the planet ...

So here we are ... and somehow the dog botherer seems to forget his and Lord Downer's valiant work in the matter of Iraq, and the pacifying and the tranquility and the western democracy and ink on fingers.

If someone forgot to tell the jihadists, should we forget to tell the dog botherer about his own excellent work as a jihadist for the west?

Why only go back to May 2013? Why not go back to 2003?

And then the dog botherer oversteps the line in a matter of the legitimate use of word.

1. 'imaginary':
Something that is imaginary exists only in someone's imagination, and not in real life. 
Many children develop fears of imaginary dangers. ...
...pictures of completely imaginary plants. 

Uh huh, so is this the imaginary abuse of Muslims on public transport?

Racist rant on Sydney train caught on video, passenger defends Muslim woman from tirade ...

Oh wait, the pond should have realised.

Of course ... that's the ABC inventing an imaginary incident and dressing it up for real ... in the style of Capricorn One and its imaginary walk on the moon... though showing less ambition and imagination than needed when it comes to mounting an imaginary war, as managed in the wonderful Wag the Dog.

No doubt the ABC was also on hand to stage the scenes for the classic Good Samaritan assaulted after standing up for Muslim women who were abused on Melbourne train.

Why is it that wits dub as "imaginary" that which is patently real? You really only have to sit in Sydney's public transport for so long before an incident or an encounter or abuse or a scuffle turns up ...

You only have to dial up racist abuse Sydney bus or train on YouTube to collect a few more examples of the common abuse that does the rounds ...

And yet in the imaginary world of the dog botherer,  racist/religious abuse on public transport is imaginary ...

You only have to experience one of these encounters to experience the eternal dilemma between cowardice and taking a stand, of getting involved and avoiding the confrontation ... the palpitating heart, the fear of conflict, the sense of injustice ... which is why the pond luckily can now afford only to catch trains, where the victim and observers can at least move into another carriage ...

And yet in the imaginary world of the dog botherer, such encounters are imaginary ...

But please do go on ... and please, repeat that word "imaginary" ... and then let's get on with the fear mongering on the hate, which is always the point of the exercise ...

So there you go. Sssh, don't mention Palestine, don't mention Iraq, don't mention injustice, because, hey injustice plays into fundamentalist hands ... and whatever you do, please imagine that the bigotry and prejudice is just a one way street ...

Let's make sure these outsiders stay bloody outsiders, where they belong ... and now let's get back to the fear and the loathing, because anyone can be a victim, and anything - even a humble match - can be a potent weapon, and it's possibly best not to leave the house at all, just in case the sky might fall in ...

And then of course there's the unspeakable evil of those who conducted that war in Iraq that helped produce the many unspeakable evils the world confronts today ...

But let's not talk of war criminals ... it's much simpler to write a column for the lizard Oz ...

And now there's just time to take a walk down memory lane. There's more Nicholson here ... and you'll find more modern Moir here ...

And so it goes ... and so it comes around ...

Funnily enough, the latest Moir produces a new variation on that old dog on a leash routine celebrated by Nicholson ...

And people wonder why Wag the Dog is one of the pond's favourite movies ... it might be imaginary, but it's pretty bloody real ...