<< SKY GOD FLOUTED ~ MAIN ~ LIGHT SEEN >>

COUNTRY GREAT

The antipodean adventures of Mark Steyn! Concluding points: “What a great country. Why isn’t it in the G8 and a permanent member of the Security Council?”

Posted by Tim B. on 08/30/2006 at 09:02 AM
  1. “What a great country. Why isn’t it in the G8 and a permanent member of the Security Council?”

    I agree, but then OZ, you would be just as disgusted with the bullshit, as an insider going on in each of these organizations, as you are NOW, without the hassle of actually having to be present.

    Of course if this became reality, The OZ representative(s), in typical blunt Australian fashion, could actually inquire eyeball to eyeball….‘Pray tell, Exactly what in the fuck are you trying to say?’

    But to me, the below is the money quote….

    Governor-General all the way up to His Excellency the Tim of Blair.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 08 30 at 09:36 AM • permalink

  2. Glad to see he enjoyed his stay, even if he didn’t make it over to the West Coast…  I suppose it allows him to keep thinking that the best in life is still to come….  :o)

    Posted by casanova on 2006 08 30 at 09:47 AM • permalink

  3. Yeah (yeah, yeah) the Beatles didn’t make it to the West Coast either, and it’s been one disappointment after another ever since.

    Posted by slammer on 2006 08 30 at 09:57 AM • permalink

  4. What a great country. Why isn’t it in the G8 and a permanent member of the Security Council?

    Screw both those overrated institutions.  We should all just set up an “Anglosphere cooperation council” with the US, UK, Australia and maybe India as senior members with Canada, New Zealand and Ireland as associate members.

    Then all we have to do is get the Aussies to drive on the right side of the road and stop eating beets on their burgers (kidding, kidding).

    Love the image of Mark as “Darth Sidious” BTW, which Star Wars character should we compare to Tim?

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 08 30 at 10:20 AM • permalink

  5. #4 “stop eating beets on their burgers?”
    Wash your mouth out with soap…

    Posted by crash on 2006 08 30 at 10:28 AM • permalink

  6. re: #4. The Republic of Ireland is pathetically leftist. Too many years as a hobbled client state, followed by too many years on the EU dole, has left them thoroughly anti-American and anti-West. They recently aquitted vandals that attacked American aircraft sitting on the tarmac at Shannon airport. Most of my relatives there are all too typical examples of this

    Posted by Blue Hen on 2006 08 30 at 10:51 AM • permalink

  7. Blue Hen-that’s probably true, but the same could be said of New Zealand (no US ships with nukes), or the leftier parts of Canada-I’m talking to you Ontario and Quebec.

    That’s why they only get to be associate members until they clean up their act.  Though Canada is well on its way with Harper.

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 08 30 at 10:58 AM • permalink

  8. I include India in the anglosphere. Canada is only an asociate member because of the isolationist French component.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2006 08 30 at 10:58 AM • permalink

  9. BTW-both times I flew home from the desert we stopped at Shannon airport, even had a Guinness at the airport pub.  The people there were very nice to us (of course, most people would be nice too if 300 GIs wandered into their pub).

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 08 30 at 11:08 AM • permalink

  10. I’m talking to you Ontario and Quebec.

    We’re not all bad.
    8=^(

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 08 30 at 11:37 AM • permalink

  11. Well, I’m with Crash.  The Security Council and G8 is less important than beetroot in burgers.
    Sorry Anglosphere, that’s just the way it is.

    Posted by Olrence on 2006 08 30 at 11:43 AM • permalink

  12. andyc-

    We’re not all bad.

    Heavens no, no nation that has produced the great Steyn could be all bad.  Still, there has to be an accounting for Pierre Trudeau.

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 08 30 at 11:46 AM • permalink

  13. When I return Tim and his charming missus’s hospitality on their next trip to North America, we’ll relive those wild Aussie nights by having a late piece of pie at my local diner (last orders 5.30pm) and then turning in after a mug of hot chocolate and a rerun of “Murder She Wrote”.

    Why, Tim, I didn’t know you have a charming missus. Er, I mean I didn’t know there was a Mrs. Tim (I’m sure any missus of Tim’s would be charming).

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 08 30 at 11:52 AM • permalink

  14. No, you’re right, 91B30, Ontario sucks.
    http://tinyurl.com/o978r
    8==^(

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 08 30 at 11:57 AM • permalink

  15. Andy-well in all fairness we have plenty of the same brand of nuts south of the border as well.  I’d laugh at them, but the other day there was a 9/11 documentary on CourtTV and they interviewed one of the parents who had talked to his kid on one of the flights that hit the WTC.  “We’re flying way too low,” the young man had told his dad.  “I think they are going to fly the plane into a building.”

    “Don’t worry dad, it will be quick.”

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 08 30 at 12:12 PM • permalink

  16. Aussies drive on the left side of the road?

    And Aussies eat beets on their hamburgers?

    (sits in shocked silence)

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 08 30 at 12:22 PM • permalink

  17. #16.  Gotto drive on the left side of the road, as the steering wheel’s on the right side of the car.  What with the left hand thus engaged
    on gearstick purposes, this leaves the right hand free to deal with burgers with beetroot.

    Jeez wronright, where ya been?

    Posted by Olrence on 2006 08 30 at 12:27 PM • permalink

  18. In fairness Wronwright sat in stunned silence when he found out that we don’t call swimming pools “cement ponds” here south of the Mason-Dixon line as well.

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 08 30 at 12:35 PM • permalink

  19. You can have my beetroot when you prise it from my cold dead hamburger.

    Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 08 30 at 01:00 PM • permalink

  20. Steyn needs to do that stream-of-consciousness writing more often…that was a hilarious (and still informative) read.

    Posted by PW on 2006 08 30 at 01:50 PM • permalink

  21. #9 You can imagine my reaction when a relative from County Coraigh (Cork) remarked upon the loss of ten Marines in Fallujah as ” I see that the Yanks aren’t doing as well as they had thought”. Another time they joked about the appalling loss of life following Katrina.

    I wouldn’t extend associate membership. And it pains me to say that.

    Posted by Blue Hen on 2006 08 30 at 02:54 PM • permalink

  22. #12 As one of the few remaining Australian-Quebecois, you can take it from me that PET is almost universally loathed in his home province.

    I’m proud to say that I never voted for him (I was still a socialist during the Trudeau era).

    CLUEBAT, CLUEBAT,
    RAH, RAH, RAH

    Posted by jlc on 2006 08 30 at 03:24 PM • permalink

  23. Having lived and worked on both sides of theTasman I’ll have to reply to the slur on NZ.

    NZ is really no more lefty than Australia is. Yes it has a Labour Government but such things are not unknown in Australia, especially at the state level.

    There is a strong streak of isolationism here but at the end of the day people still see themselves as part of the"English speaking world” so much so that half the population live in Australia or England.

    Finally despite the efforts of Helen and co Australia is far more tax, rule, regulation and public servant ridden than NZ is. There are quite a few things in NZ that you are allowed to do in NZ that are verboten in Australia.

    Posted by Mike.A. on 2006 08 30 at 03:27 PM • permalink

  24. Poor 1.618—she’ll be simply crushed to learn of Mrs. Tim.

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 08 30 at 04:20 PM • permalink

  25. The beetroot usually ends up down the front of my white shirt.

    Posted by chrisgo on 2006 08 30 at 04:23 PM • permalink

  26. #16 wron

    Well, it hasn’t hurt us so far….

    Posted by kae on 2006 08 30 at 05:51 PM • permalink

  27. #4, 91B30:

    Then all we have to do is get the Aussies to drive on the right side of the road and stop eating beets on their burgers…

    This has been confirmed and verified?

    We need to get down there and liberate these poor folk ASAP!!!

    Beets on burgers? Has to be some kind of commie plot!

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 08 30 at 06:09 PM • permalink

  28. #25 chrisgo
    The beetroot usually ends up down the front of my white shirt.

    Well…. of course.  That’s where it’s supposed to go.

    As to the septics who find beetroot in burgers repugnant - I’ve said this before in these columns.  Burger off!  There are few things that this country will go to war for and one of ‘ems the preservation of the culinary masterpiece of having beetroot in our hamburgers.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 08 30 at 06:21 PM • permalink

  29. I, for one, will maintain a ladylike decorum and politely ignore the suggestion of beet slices on a hamburger.

    *dainty shudder*

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 08 30 at 06:32 PM • permalink

  30. I suppose that Ireland resents all the money and support it recieved from the US.  Hatred seems to be the standard reaction to altruisms presumptions.  America faces it all over the world.

    How could anyone be surprised that Mr. Tim has a mizzus and that she’s nice?  Mr. Tim’s aren’t a dime a dozen, you know.  Of course he’d be snatched up!

    I do worry about crash, though.  I hope this doesn’t mean that she ceases granting her sparkles.

    Posted by saltydog on 2006 08 30 at 06:34 PM • permalink

  31. Ach!  Make that “altruism’s” in the first paragraph, and “Mr. Tims” in the second paragraph.  It’s a comma catastrophe!

    My brain has turned to vegemite.  And it’s driving on the wrong side of the road.

    Posted by saltydog on 2006 08 30 at 06:36 PM • permalink

  32. #31 Salty

    My brain has turned to vegemite.  And it’s driving on the wrong side of the road.

    The only cure is for you to move to Australia!

    Posted by kae on 2006 08 30 at 06:41 PM • permalink

  33. Thwack!  Hurls several slices of beetroot at RebeccaH.  First salvo in the Great Beetroot War of ‘06.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 08 30 at 06:54 PM • permalink

  34. 99 MentalFloss

    Poor 1.618—she’ll be simply crushed to learn of Mrs. Tim.

    LOL.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 08 30 at 07:13 PM • permalink

  35. Australia in the UN Security Council?

    I have a better idea.

    Australia out of the UN.

    USA, England and Israel also. We’ll start our own club of countries who ‘get it’.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 08 30 at 07:17 PM • permalink

  36. I ask again. What in the hell is going on?

    Bush Admin. approves Persia’s Mohammad Khatami coming to the U.S. and Oz you get…SEVERAL hardcore Islamists have been invited to a taxpayer-funded Muslim leaders conference run by the Howard Government.

    The Australian

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 08 30 at 07:54 PM • permalink

  37. If Australia wants on to the Security Council, we can give you a great price on a Trident sub and a couple CV(N)‘s…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 08 30 at 08:18 PM • permalink

  38. #23, mike, apart from the nauseous Helen and the general small-town, monocultural parochial greyness of the place, there are two things that separate Aussies from Kiwis.

    Aussies don’t:

    1. root sheep (or goats)

    2. allow two men to register as a “marriage”.

    Posted by mr magoo on 2006 08 30 at 08:45 PM • permalink

  39. #38 I wish Australia was more monocultural, parochial, small-town. The lack of the first two is due to left-wing fancies like multiculturalism and cultural relativism.  Mind you the Howard govt is jumping over itself to let more immigrants in.

    Posted by russell2pi on 2006 08 30 at 09:18 PM • permalink

  40. #33, I’ll see your beetroot and raise you a tomato, dill pickles, and two slices of onion.  And cheese!  Beetroot War indeed.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 08 30 at 10:15 PM • permalink

  41. When John Howard recently visited the US to talk to George W, and then hastened to Beijing to talk to the Chinese about North Korea, the importance of his visits scarcely received a mention in our media. Instead he was criticised for his spending on overseas trips.

    Provincial, us?

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 08 31 at 02:02 AM • permalink

  42. I will leave it to my Aussie mates to explain the concept of “a burger with the lot”.

    Beetroot is just the beginning…go on, tell ‘em!

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 08 31 at 04:59 AM • permalink

  43. RebeccaH, I have seized your tomato, dill pickles, and two slices of onion and put them in the burger.  I add a fried egg, bacon, lettuce (iceberg only) more beetroot and then vainly try to clamp the top part of the roll on top.  Wrap tightly in plastic film so the juices from the filling makes part of the bun go soggy and when you open it, the whole lot springs open depositing said beetroot and fried egg down your front.

    There.  A perfect burger as made by beach-side milkbars all over coastal Australia.  I wonder why they don’t put all that on the Aust Tourism ads?

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 08 31 at 05:48 AM • permalink

  44. #43 SCD. Damn you, man. Now I want a burger!

    I looooove beetroot on my hamburgers. And cheese. And tomato, and lettuce and egg, and onion, but not the pineapple.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 08 31 at 07:08 AM • permalink

  45. Huh?  You don’t like the “tropicana”? 

    How about a “Sweetheart” (as in the 5m crodile caught in the harbour) like they used to serve at the Mindil markets in Darwin - replace the beef patty with shredded prawn meat, ditch the pickles and the beetroot (shudder) and add mango and ground chili.

    An acquired taste.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 08 31 at 07:28 AM • permalink

  46. Oh now you’re just being silly.  That’s not a burger, SCD.  That’s an Aussie version of the po’boy.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 08 31 at 08:03 PM • permalink

  47. Madam, you continue to insult our Nation’s culinary heritage!

    I demand satisfaction and your being of the fair sex be damned!

    Its cream pies# at 10 paces at dawn.

    # Aussie version:  Spread Vegemite liberally on the crust before adding the cream

    [/Colonel Blimp]

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 09 01 at 03:52 AM • permalink

  48. Page 1 of 1 pages

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Members:
Login | Register | Member List

Please note: you must use a real email address to register. You will be sent an account activation email. Clicking on the url in the email will automatically activate your account. Until you do so your account will be held in the "pending" list and you won't be able to log in. All accounts that are "pending" for more than one week will be deleted.