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WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?
Charles Krauthammer is right. We rule.
UPDATE. Daniel San:
I was born in England, but my family moved to Australia when I was three years old. Let me state , for the record, how eternally grateful I am that I didn’t have to grow up in England. For the English are a miserable race. And I have a lovely piece of paper that says I’m no longer one of them. I freakin’ love this country.
Yes, yes you do.
(And are now going to be insufferable...)
Posted by tree hugging sister on 2006 06 23 at 01:22 PM • permalinkI do appreciate the way Aussies speak. Straightforward, and to the point.
Screw the PC mode of speech!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 23 at 01:28 PM • permalinkYes, yes, we all love you. Err… that is except for one thing. Can you change the name of your team from the Socceroos to the Irukandji.
Socceroos. Snicker.. sounds like a rice crispy based children’s treat.
Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2006 06 23 at 01:40 PM • permalinkThose foreign commentators who think Australia is a still a plain-speaking, pro-Western conservative paradise have clearly never spent a night in a Glebe cafe or been to an Australian university campus.
Posted by Blithering Bunny on 2006 06 23 at 02:42 PM • permalinkThat understanding has led it to share foxholes with Americans from Korea to Kabul. They fought with us at Tet and now in Baghdad. Not every engagement has ended well. But every one was strenuous, and many quite friendless.
I always harbored an infatuation, but with Viet Nam, I fell in love. Thanks, Oz. The Hammer (as usual) is right—you’re the best. I only hope our enduring gratitude shows.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 06 23 at 02:45 PM • permalinkWhy I Love Australia AND Charles Krauthammer. Charles Krauthammer as a man is every bit as remarkable as OZ’land is.
Oh yeah, you can toss in Greg Norman, too. I saw him at a tournament on the TUBE, walking up the 18th fairway to the green, spotting a young man in the gallery, in a wheelchair who had either Multiple Sclerosis OR Cerebral Palsy.
Mr. Norman, walked up to that young man, took HIS towel from his caddy, wiped sweat off the boy, took his ‘SHARK’ hat and placed it on the boys head, then Mr. Norman, finished his round. I sincerely hope that that young man lives for a long, long time, so he can wear HIS OWN autographed ‘SHARK’ hat, everyday of the rest of his life.
Greg must really like me (never met the man, nor he, me) cause he developed and built THIS less then a mile from my Florida property….:).
Australia: the anti-Europe. The anti-Canada. The anti-PCese.
Perhaps it is, well, just an honest country where most fundamentally relish in doing the “right thing.” How refreshing!
Love ya, Oz.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 23 at 02:51 PM • permalinkAlthough my direct interaction with Aussies has not been extensive there are two incidents that for me sealed my view of them:
- As a college student studying abroad in Germany I spent a weekend in Prague where we met a group of three Aussies and one Mexican in a bar, they had wisely decided to spend what little money they had left on beer rather than food. We spent the rest of the evening drinking with them until they had to leave to catch a train. It was a blast! After I got back to college I heard from other friends who had traveled around Europe that they had heard stories of these four gentlemen in various different youth hostels.
- One Friday evening I dropped my wallet in the middle of the Boston Commons, I didn’t notice it was was gone until Sunday night. I figured I might as well kiss all my money goodbye. However I had the good fortune to have it picked up by an Aussie who called my work number (it was on my business card) to let me know he had found it and, though he was headed back to Australia the following evening, he had left it with a friend. I picked it up with every last, red cent, in it. So if you are reading this, thank you!That plus your involvement in Iraq, I am a fan for life! Well and this place, of course…
Posted by Not My Problem on 2006 06 23 at 02:57 PM • permalinkCan’t say it enough: GOD BLESS AUSTRALIA!!
Posted by Bill Spencer on 2006 06 23 at 04:25 PM • permalinkFirst time I met Aussies was in Greece. They were loud and beat me at Rummy 500. They drank all the ouzo; in the morning they drank all the orange juice. I got weak tea.
Second time was in Oxford. Some Aussie asked me out. We went to a pub where I was a regular. The bloke went to the bar to get us drinks. I ended up with a tall blue thing with plastic mermaids and pieces of fruit in it. The bartender saw it was me and sent over a shot of whiskey. One of my profs saw me and sent over a shot of whiskey. I managed to drink the blue thing. The Aussie got in a (verbal with some manly posturing) fight over darts. We went to another pub. And another pub. And another pub. I have never seen anyone put away so much beer and show it so little in my entire life.
We had fun. I’d like to visit Oz, perhaps after a polar bear killin’ cruise, and look at Aussies in their natural habitat.
A couple of years ago I was enjoying my mid-morning Sapphire & tonic in a sports bar here in Denver. There weren’t any actual sporting events being played in the US at that moment, so the TV’s were tuned to various time-fillers like “Pickin’, Grinnin’, and Bass Fishin’” or “The World’s Strongest Scandinavian” and such. But on one monitor, I caught sight of absolutely the most insane thing I’d ever seen:
Airboat racing.
I was transfixed. My God, I thought, who are these guys, where do they come from, and how do they fit their balls into those little suicide sleds? Anyway, when they showed the racers’ names & nationalities, virtually all of them were Aussies. I was so not surprised.
“What a bunch of fucking nutters,” I said to the bartender. And I meant it in the best possible way.
Posted by WingDynasty on 2006 06 23 at 04:56 PM • permalinkAt a dinner party recently the group got into a big discussion about where we would live if, God forbid, our country as we know it ceased to exist. Nearly all partipants in this admittedly unscientific, wine sotted conversation concluded that Australia is where they’d go. The conventional wisdom in the room was that Australians came the closest to living our ideals: independence-loving, plain-speaking, capitalists, etc. (hell, in “frankness” they are what we WISH we were). And well, just fun to be around. This was a mixed group of liberals and right-thinking folks. But the answer was the same: Austrailians are closer to us than the Brits and certainly most Canadians. I get the feeling that that view is conventional wisdom here. And yes, there is an “affection” as Krauthammer put it for your country from ours.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 23 at 05:02 PM • permalinkYep, we Aussies rock.
And here’s why the US rocks
Posted by Jack Lacton on 2006 06 23 at 06:59 PM • permalinkZonc @10. important question… Boags or Cascade? Think carefully, your citizenship may depend on it.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 23 at 07:14 PM • permalinkThose foreign commentators who think Australia is a still a plain-speaking, pro-Western conservative paradise have clearly never spent a night in a Glebe cafe or been to an Australian university campus.
Scott, I wouldn’t be so sure. The only time my old uni actually had a high voter turnout for its SRC elections, resulted in a group coming to power on promises of a) Stopping funding of all trendy left wing causes on campus b) Spending the remainder of the SRC funds on booze for the student population and then c) Abolishing itself at the end of the year
Good times.
Posted by Quentin George on 2006 06 23 at 07:57 PM • permalinkAustralia is America without the Revolution.
Didn’t need one by then Dave, the Empire had learnt from its mistakes back in 1776, and pretty much gave us whatever self government we asked for.
Apparently Queen Victoria didn’t like the name “Commonwealth of Australia” though - thought it sounded too Commie.
Posted by Quentin George on 2006 06 23 at 07:59 PM • permalinkYep, OZ is so great, some people will do almost anything to get here.
Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2006 06 23 at 08:07 PM • permalinkGood on Charles Krauthammer, but he should spare a thought for those poor Aussies who live in the People’s Paradise of Brackistan (formerly known as Victoria). Apart from just about every bit of loony nanny-state legislation you can think of, they have now decreed that you can’t smoke in ‘covered’ transport zones, e.g., bus stops, open at every side to howling Melbourne gales.
I don’t need to read the article.
Thanks for the compliments and I want to reciprocate [there are less of us to do it].
I have been an Americophile for 50 years. [I even liked the Kennedys once.]I lived in the US for three years and only met nice people there -even in Chicago, where I wasn’t mugged.
What I like most about you, strangely, is that you are your own best critics, the most UNarrogant and open country in the world.
Believe it is because it’s true -I have lived in Britain and Europe too, and I know.
Unfortunately you have the worst, distorting publicity people - Hollywood.
Most Aussies still think the US is ssoo dangerous to live in as a result.The US without the Revolution - and the Civil War-? well, not quite, we have huge salt lakes where your Great Lakes are.
Throwing in my cheers for the Aussies as well.
I know there are Kiwis who are also supportive of America, and I always wish to include them in my cheers…but their country’s leadership has not allowed them in on the Anglosphere. Its a pity too, cause Kiwis seem like really neat people too. Maybe they can change that and give Aussies a run for the money??
Anyway, have loved Australia since Men At Work first hit the airwaves where I live. Am pround to call them America’s friend.
Posted by Sharon_Ferguson on 2006 06 23 at 08:29 PM • permalinkmay the good lord bless & watch over fair oz and folks lucky enough to live there.
next time y’all make it to texas, explain where you’re from. drinks will be bought for you.
america could ask for no better friend; i only hope that the nitwits we keep electing to high office here never forget that.
Posted by jimmy quest on 2006 06 23 at 08:34 PM • permalinkDemocrat or not, this is another reason I like Greg Norman.
Clinton Has Knee Surgery to Repair Tendon After Fall
By JAMES BENNET
Published: March 15, 1997After attending two fund-raisers in Florida on Thursday night, the President traveled by helicopter and then motorcade to Mr. Norman’s estate in Hobe Sound, not far from West Palm Beach. Mr. Clinton was to playgolf with Mr. Norman after visiting a school this morning, and had planned to stay at the guest house in Mr. Norman’s walled compound until Saturday.
The injury occurred about 1:20 this morning, White House officials said, when Mr. Clinton was finishing up a talk with Mr. Norman and starting down a dimly lighted flight of four wooden stairs in front of the main house. Mr. Norman was just ahead of him, Mr. Clinton indicated. The President thought that he had reached the stone walkway at the base of the steps, but in fact he had one step to go, Mr. McCurry said.
As Mr. Clinton stumbled, his knee twisted violently to the side, and he ripped more than half of his quadriceps tendon away from his kneecap. Mr. Clinton said today that the popping noise had been so loud that Mr. Norman also heard it.
‘‘Greg Norman, being a better athlete than I am, immediately heard my knee pop and turned around and caught me before I fell on the ground,’’ Mr. Clinton said.
In a statement, Mr. Norman said he was disappointed that the President was injured. ‘‘It happened so quickly,’’ he said.
‘‘You can imagine what it would be like if you were in my shoes and had this happen to a house guest or a friend, let alone the President of the United States,’’ he said. ‘‘The most important thing is the President’s health and his quick recovery.’’
Wink, Wink.
Nice trip, Greg.We are really just lulling you into a false sense of security with our advertisements, beer & Vegemite. Our wampum will eventually make you drop your guard and then….....we will INVADE & CONQUER as part of our colonial expansion. We’ll shoot the women & rape the men etc.
Today the USA tomorrow the worl….....ahhh forget it. I’m off to the local.
Vegemite is made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacture, and various vegetable and spice additives. The taste is difficult to describe but is extremely salty and slightly bitter, and as might be expected, malty.
Ummmm, guys (and gals) why don’t you just drink more beer and skip the by-product…vegemite?
Good on ya Oz. Served with your stout sea going men in several oceans and been absolutely blind stinking as a guest on several Oz ships. None better. The ‘Hammer sure nailed this one.
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 06 23 at 09:13 PM • permalinkUp until 2002 I worked ungodly hours, paid no attention to the news (hell, I voted for Clinton twice!) and have a hazy memory of something that really bothered me. Can someone clarify? I recall our Olympic athletes being booed in Sydney. Is my work-induced memory flawed? I remember being pretty upset about that, as if a cousin had turned their back. I remember Americans being upset about their treatment.
Is that right?
It doesn’t change the way I feel about Australia today one whit, but I think that was an uncomfortable moment.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 23 at 10:29 PM • permalinkIn Australia, there’s a famous poem by Dorothea Mackeller called ‘My Country’. I asked groups in my drama class, twelve year old boys, to mime these verses. One group did a great job but the final touch was very Australian.
I love a sunburnt country,
Hands flapping ‘ouch! ouch!’
A land of sweeping plains,
Big brooms across the floor
Of ragged mountain ranges,
In the SUV at the wheel
Of droughts and flooding rains.
Tongues hanging out, umbrellas up
I love her far horizons,
Hand up above the eyes - scanning
I love her jewel-sea,
Australian crawl
Her beauty and her terror
Cuddle yourself then look scared
The wide brown land for me!
Bent over and dropped their pants!Powerline on both Krauthammer and Aussie craziness.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 23 at 10:57 PM • permalinkI hate to dampen this Australia/America love-in, but we do still have allot of stupid lefties out here too. Phillip Adams is at least as much of a big, fat, dishonest commie piece of shit as Michael Moore.
And the reaction from the PC powers that be to the muslim riots that followed the Cronulla riot (itself provoked by years of imbecilic Lebanese aggression unchecked by the police), was classic panicked-white-mouse-EU-official. If the rugged frontier country Krauthammer describes really existed we would have burned down Lakemba and fired Iemma the next day.
Amos,
You may be right, but here is the difference, from an American’s perspective. Your leaders had the stones to call Sharia and the other nonsense what it is: clear out if you want Sharia. Contrast this with Canadians, and really Americans, who are so over-indulgent on this nonsense. I really think you should be proud of your leaders, vis a vis the rest of the PC world. I recall when Howard had a news conference with Tony Blair. They were both asked whether Islamic terrorism had its roots in Iraq. Howard took the question and reminded the idiot reporter (Paul Baglia) that Islamic hatred of the West preceded any action by either country in the GWOT. Blair was left nearly speechless, if you can imagine. Australia should be proud, and rightfully so, of their elected officials. Much more so that many so-called “allies” of ours in this war who, as Krauthammer says, use the word “but” and offer “wagging fingers” in their “support” of the GWOT. Yes, there are pockets of senility, such as Austin, Berkeley, Adams and Moore. But they thankfully, do not represent the majority. For that, we should be very, very grateful.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 23 at 11:24 PM • permalinkWhat I like most about you, strangely, is that you are your own best critics, the most UNarrogant and open country in the world.
Believe it is because it’s true -I have lived in Britain and Europe too, and I know.Thanks for recognizing that. It’s frustrating that one of the reasons foreigners criticize us so much is that we criticize ourselves. Since they don’t do the same about themselves, the assumption is that we really must be awful - “Why, even the Americans admit how bad they are.”
What they fail to realize is that the self-criticism is simply frustrated idealism and the desire to always improve. And yes, it’s the opposite of arrogant. You want arrogance, see France or Canada. Smugsville.
Australia really is a great country - and a great friend.
And y’all have got the cutest little accents…. ;-p
Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2006 06 23 at 11:54 PM • permalinkGood God, #32 Kathy K - that’s hysterical!
I laughed so hard I scared my cat.
I wish they were there too. :-D
Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2006 06 23 at 11:59 PM • permalinkIt’s refreshing to read something penned by an American writer, who writes about Australia, without sounding like he’s paraphrasing a travel brochure.
But it does beg the question, why the sudden call to write about Australia all of a sudden? It couldn’t have anything to do with the ever shrinking coalition following Japan’s plans to withdraw from Iraq now could it?
I definitely love you guys, but had an Aussie tell me the other day that we Yanks we sooooo arrogant in maintaining everyone worldwide desired democracy. My response: “So, polical leadership should go to the thug with the most guns, eh? I’m sure the average middle easterner just hates the idea of having to choose his leader.”
I then asked if he had voted Labor in the last election and of course he had. Anyway, we all have our libs. What can we do?
Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2006 06 24 at 12:22 AM • permalinkAddamo, you are a freaking asswhipe. Let’s please, all of us, find the black lining to every cloud. What are the possible negatives?? Leave it to Addamo and Gustov to find those. You are such a tit, Addamo. You must, for sure, be the most unpopular kid in your class. Sheesh. What a loser.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 24 at 12:35 AM • permalinkAddamo, a correction. You are not an “ass whipe.” You are an
assholejerkimfamous ass wipe.Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 06 24 at 12:51 AM • permalinkNow all yall be nice to adumpo. It isn’t easy being a sniveling, hand-wringing, terror-ridden little snot who sees ulterior motives and black hearts everywhere he looks. He’s is the creature you are left with when emotions are used as cognitive elements. Though he doesn’t deserve your compassion, he does deserve your pity.
#59 Kathy from Austin the idiot reporter you were thingking of was Channel 10’s Paul Bonjorno.
Nick and I have had the misfortune to meet the man on several occasions. What a twit.
Hey Addamo, why not stay and play a while instead of lobbing hand grenades and leaving you big coward.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 06 24 at 01:12 AM • permalinkWell I will say this for us, at least we had an anti-muslim riot, unlike the europussies who cringe with fear and had over their wallets if a bemused Jordanian businessman so much as asks them for street directions.
The reaction of Cronulla surfies to the unrelenting thuggery of the Lebanese scum was heartening. True, the proud islamic warriors ran away the instant the Anglo muscle turned out and the mob spent the day terrorizing completely innocent people who had nothing to do with the lebo gangs, but it’s the thought that counts.
Everybody then had the pleasure of throwing up their hands in horror that those awful surfies behaved so badly. Nobody seemed particularly surprised when the arabs subsuquently smashed cars and beat up random people (employing the preferred 20-to-1 lebanese tactical combat ratio), that’s just how you expect barbarians to behave. Even the most horrified Age editorial had that underlying subtext: “we expect better from whitey”.
But the Cronulla riots did one useful thing, they sent a message to our lap-dog political elites straight from the Aussi street, ‘Deal with these Jackasses or we will”.
Howard got the memo.
You guys ain’t fooling me! I saw Quigley Downunder! ... and if it wasn’t for that guy in the mustache who kept walking in front of Laura San Giacomo’s I’d remember a lot more of it…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 01:16 AM • permalink#54 kathy regarding the US athletes being boo’ed at the Olympics in Sydney, i do recall something about your swim team, or the men’s relay team saying they were going to smash us like guitars or something prior to the competition… when out team then beat yours they did seem to delight in standing on the swimming blocks and playing air guitars while the crowd cheered…
i think it might have just been a reaction to the sometimes overhyped way US athletes sometimes carry on, a bit loud and insensitive sometimes… i like americans a lot as well, but sometimes aussies prefer to be a bit understated, where sometimes US athletes are a little loud and in-your-face… i know its a bit of a generalisation, but i imagine it was probably as a result of something like that coverage about what some US team members said they were going to do to us that may have rubbed some aussies up the wrong way…
i noticed on another blog after the socceroos won through to the next round of the world cup that a couple of people brought up that the coach of the US team (Bruce Arena or something???) said Australia and Trinidad and Tobago were probably the two weakest teams in the cup, sort of like we were making up the numbers… these sorts of things do tend to get a proud sporting nations back up a little.. and now see who got through….
but in general, and most of the time, the US has a lot of friends in Oz, and thats why we stuck through the good and the bad….. when the chips are down, its these old friendships that are likely to stand the test of time, rather than all the fair weather types professing to be your best buddies….
We rule?
I don’t think so… Not when a letter like this appears in The Age:
THE application of the Guantanamo Bay concept to asylum seekers has the following benefits: 1. Australian law is not applicable. 2. International law can be ignored. 3. The treatment of the refugees is concealed.
One senses the razor-sharp minds of Messrs Howard and Ruddock behind these legal machinations.
The dissident senators are not rebels but martyrs, and deserve the support of all honest citizens. Perhaps we should also ask: where are the members of the Family First party, good Christians all?
The ethics of the ruling group, already lowered by their unaccountability as shown from “children overboard” to the Iraq wheat scandal, have reached a new low and I must protest against the total immorality of the Federal Government.
No matter how well the Socceroos play, I am embarrassed to be known as an Australian.
Ian Docker, Main Ridge
What’s the bet that this person isn’t “embarrassed” enough to actually leave the country? Also, can anyone recommend a polite way of suggesting this to him? I don’t think “Fuck off then you ungrateful whinging attention-seeking bastard” will get published…
Adam de Mo is so typical of the lefty way of thinking. Their hearts are black and full of hate, and are they CONVINCED everyone else’s is too. They are blind to consider that not everyone wants to throw up when they look in the mirror. Adam, ask yourself, “Is it just me?” the answer is yes, its just you (and those like you).
Now piss off.i often contribute to the blogs on news.com.au, and the number or arseholes u get there saying they are embarrassed to be australians… i try and always tell them to sod off then… sometimes the moderator lets the comments through, sometime they don’t…. i gave a couple of good sprays the other day…. u get some satisfaction out of it…
but yes unfortunately writing a decent rebuttal and getting it published on a newspaper’s letter page with all the invective you would like to use is very unlikely….
O/T Thelord of all evil is dead
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1671009.htmNow if his plastic daughter would follow…
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 06 24 at 02:40 AM • permalink25 Ushie
They drank all the ouzo
And you let them? I thought you liked them! Oh well, maybe it was mislabeled or something ... still!
58 Amos
I hate to dampen this Australia/America love-in, but we do still have allot of stupid lefties out here too.
That just enhances the mutual empathy thang. Watch what happens on this very thread when Ad the Mo shows up ...
64
why the sudden call to write about Australia all of a sudden?
Right. Up UNTIL now we were of course writing admiringly and fondly about Japan, as one does, and then suddenly switched over, out of (as you seem to have so-insightfully intuited) sheer embarassment, for the implicit rebuke of having Japan withdraw its public- infrastructure- constructing “forces” from Iraq. Our US-centralistic hegemoniacal world-view thus refuted, we of course turn for solace to our last remaining troglodytic enabler nations, as is only to be expected.
[/sniveling grub logic]
Barkeep! I’d like a nice pitcher of ouzo for my new psycho-analyst Addamo here. And a long straw.Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 24 at 02:44 AM • permalink#64 “Why the sudden call to write about Australia all of a sudden?”
And then the rhetorically inquisitive answer. It’s do with Japan and Iraq.
Of course.
Take a step back and ponder these couple of sentences. A well known American columnist and writer with an enormous output happens to write a piece on Australia within the context of his field of expertise. As could be expected, given the writer’s known views, his article is very warm. Reflecting a view of the relationship firmly shared by many Americans and Australians, including the vast majority of those here.
So how does Addamo think? There must be something about the timing. This private intellectual must be motivated by concerns relating to geo-political tactics. It’s all part of the war.
God forbid the possibility that the man might have just been writing what he thinks. Rule out immediately the thought that he was just doing his job. That he was just doing what he does.
Nope. For people like Addamo, nothing is routine and nothing is as it appears. Spew out what comes to mind, no matter how bizarre, and see if some of it sticks.
This is was passes for “thinking” on the “left”.
Addamo, mate. If I thought like that, I would do my best to keep it quiet. I would certainly keep my mouth shut. And see what help might be available.
There is much to admire about the both the United States and Australia.
Alternatively, there is much about the two countries to dislike.
Posted by gustov_deleft on 2006 06 24 at 04:04 AM • permalinkMaybe I haven’t been dropping in on the right threads but I haven’t seen any input from Addimdope or gassygus for a while. Funny that they should turn up when a major American columnist pays us a compliment or two.
Guys, it’s like Peter Costello said. If you hear sharia calling your name, don’t let us hold you back.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 06 24 at 04:58 AM • permalinkNotice how the left is not only humourless, but totally lacking in joy? An American columnist says some nice things about us, instead of blushing, saying thanks and enjoying the moment, this pack of misery guts have to find a way to sneer and lay guilt, and generally crap on it.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 06 24 at 05:29 AM • permalinkI haven’t lived in Australia for a very long time. Various ventures, personal and financial, have kept me in a swag of Asian countries (Hong Kong being the latest). But I think Krauthammer gets it about right. Apart from the odd misery guts I stumble upon, Australians are pure gold in Asia. And locals appreciate Aussie humour, directness, and our abilty to work hard and fast. We don’t stuff around with mind games, enjoy life and are the preferred men of choice by most Asian hotties. Okay, I might have made up that last bit…
Krauthammer: if you’re ever in Hong Kong, I’ll take you my favourite spa for a night you’ll never forget.
Conversely, if I ever saw Phat Phil Adams in this part of the world - since he’s been raised in this thread - then I’d sell him to a BBQ pork shop for the best return on investment of my life!
What interests me most about g_d’s comment at 89 is that its content is effectively zero yet he still sent it. Given his past efforts here I think the most likely thing is that he doesn’t realise how fatuous the comment was but, instead, thinks he’s said something really profound.
But maybe I’m wrong. So I’m inviting g_d to tell us, please, what country has much to admire and nothing to dislike?
The only things I dislike about Oz are the biting, stinging things, the crappy weather down south and the people who won’t face reality. May they get mugged by it.
I keep trying to talk my wife into re-settling in Australia, since we spent 3 weeks there in ‘04. Heck I even filled out the application to work legally there. There is apoint system that takes into account your skill level, age, finances, etc. and I scored really high.
Alas, the biggest points are for being under 45 yrs old, and I’ll be 45 in a couple months. Guess I’ll have to make it up with my un-natural ability to hold liquor and the fact I look good in hats.#71
The Slavic Small Giant Class Liberation Army and their Deadly Kobold Throwing Axes help a lot.
“Oh no, precious, don’t hurts us!”
Posted by mythusmage on 2006 06 24 at 08:04 AM • permalinkThe trouble with a person, including a corporation, bent on destroying or debilitating A ‘bed’ made for it over 200 years ago, IS the ‘persons’ outright dislike/despise of an individual, namely George Bush and/or Country such as THIS IS......
National Security Be Damned
The guiding philosophy on West 43rd Street.
by Heather Mac Donald
07/03/2006, Volume 011, Issue 40BY NOW IT’S UNDENIABLE: The
PRAVDANew York Times is a national security threat. So drunk is it on its own power and so antagonistic to the Bush administration that it will expose every classified anti terror program it finds out about, no matter how legal the program, how carefully crafted to safeguard civil liberties, or how vital to protecting American lives.The Times’s latest revelation of a national security secret appeared on last Friday’s front page—where no al Qaeda operative could possibly miss it. Under the deliberately sensational headline, “Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror,” the Times blows the cover on a highly targeted program to locate terrorist financing networks. According to the report, since 9/11, the Bush administration has obtained information about terror suspects’ international financial transactions from a Belgian clearinghouse of international money transfers.
Weekly StandardOne fault of the U.S. is that we do NOT and have NOT treated treason, with the same seriousness, since Benedict Arnold and the Rosenberg’s. The former absconded, the latter we DID fry.
“...if the civilized society is to prevail over the barbarous one, it will necessarily and tragically be degraded by the experience as a vital cost of victory. Partly, this is because civilized war tactics are apt to fail against barbarous war tactics, thus requiring civilized society to break the “rules” if it is to survive a true death struggle. It is also because the clash itself — the act of engaging with the barbarous society — forces civilization to confront, repel and also internalize previously unimagined depredations.”
Diana West
So now CAIR and ACLU are complaining about snooping bank details?
“There is probably no other time that a proper balance between civil liberties and national security becomes more important than in wartime. During times of war, sometimes unusual responses are implemented, often requiring suspension of certain liberties. Of course war opens the opportunity for abuse by governments, and the ACLU are right to watch for them. However, the ACLU in its absolutist perception of freedom, only worries about one side of the equation, civil liberties. It pays no attention to the national security side of things, not only ignoring it, but working against it.”
Stop the ACLU Blog
The government, and the tax collectors in particular, have always had the ability to snoop on financial transactions. They are not (in the Swift case) after your Average Joe’s cash, but much larger transfers. Good luck to them.A little late to the party, I know, but I want to join in thanking Australia for its longstanding friendship with the U.S. And for producing Tim Blair and Yalumba Port. Little Polish Frizzle thanks Australia for The Wiggles.
Posted by Polish Frizzle on 2006 06 24 at 09:07 AM • permalinkHey,
AddamoAdamsFamily - you never thanked me for helping with your French in Montreal (Aust V Brazil soccer match thread) ton hostie tabernac!. Did you try out the phrases I suggested?Chalice! Some people are ungrateful. But, you live there, right?
...and yer mate gutsy somehow couldn’t rise to the challenge of naming a country it admired, having put scorn on both the USA and Australia. A coward as well as a dickhead.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 24 at 10:01 AM • permalinkThere is much to admire about the both the United States and Australia.
Alternatively, there is much about the two countries to dislike.
Holy shit! You don’t say!
My God, here I thought that saying a couple of countries like the US and Oz are freakin’ awesome was the same as saying that they’re absolutely perfect. Now gustov tells me they have faults. Wow! What a surprising kick in the nards that is! Imagine!
Y’know, if the adolescent, snide, faux-sophisticated stupidity of the average leftist wasn’t already obvious, Addamo and gustov have provided two glowingly lame demonstrations. What a pathetic way to go through life - as a perpetual 14-year-old slouched in a chair and sneering at the adults.
Costello’s words were refreshing, but at the end of they day that’s all they were - words. So those who wants sharia should leave, eh, Pete? Would anyone like to guess the number of sharia cheerleaders heard Costello’s speech, thought “Whoops! Didn’t realise that when I was reciting the Oath of Allegiance. Back to Saudi Arabia we go!”, then packed their bags and left? I think somewhere in the vicinity of zero is a reasonable stab in the dark.
Unfortunately, the coalition doesn’t seem too likely to do anything about the problem of sharia-desiring, conservative Muslims living in Australia. A good start would be taking an axe to the Australian welfare state, which would erode their financial base considerably. Since a disproportionately large number of conservative Muslims claim welfare (the wife doesn’t work and is much more likely to raise a large brood of kids than other families in the wider community), limiting this source of funds makes Australia a much less attractive destination for such people
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 24 at 10:54 AM • permalink#82 Huck Foley, if that is your real name: “‘They drank all the ouzo’
And you let them? I thought you liked them! Oh well, maybe it was mislabeled or something ... still!”Ouzo tasted great in Greece; I was offered some back here in the States and gah! retch! blech! it was awful! I think ouzo has to be in its natural habitat.
Also, I think any Aussie could drink anything and still win.
I was born in England, but my family moved to Australia when I was three years old. Let me state , for the record, how eternally grateful I am that I didn’t have to grow up in England. For the English are a miserable race, And I have a lovely peice of paper that says I’m no longer one of them. I freakin’ love this country.
Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 24 at 11:20 AM • permalinkBut it does beg the question, why the sudden call to write about Australia all of a sudden? It couldn’t have anything to do with the ever shrinking coalition following Japan’s plans to withdraw from Iraq now could it?
Yeah, Tim, why don’t you write about countries that are more relevant to current events, like Andorra or Belarus?
Among trolls, I have never seen such a one-track mind. We are grateful to Japan for their participation in Iraq, Addamo, but it’s important to note that the “shrinking coalition” is gradually being beefed up with the “growing Iraqi army”, which is as it should be. And as Huck points out, it’s not as if we were celebrating Japan Month here at Blair’s house, and then cancelled it all of a sudden.
O/T #106 - Little Polish Frizzle thanks Australia for The Wiggles.
I used to work in a shop where the wife of the tallest Wiggle would come in. I knew who she was, but generally didn’t hassle her. Although occassionally if the contents of her groceries justified it, I would ask “So… you’re having cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti?” before breaking into a dance.
Also, when my young neices and nephews would regale me with inexplicable but highly purposeful jigs, I could act them out for her, and she would explain “oh that’s the Donkey Dance from our second DVD!”
Nice lady. She was a good sport.
Wait, guys!
Addamo is right! We should leave the Japanese, Danes, Fijians, Salvadorans, etc., in Iraq and pull our troops out first!
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 12:50 PM • permalinkAlso, I think any Aussie could drink anything and still win.
That’s why VW’s never really took off in OZ. No radiators.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 02:11 PM • permalink119 paco
I have never seen such a one-track mind
fixation. A strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behavior that persists throughout life.
121 Dave S.
Funny how lefties are snarking about countries leaving our unilateral action.
So true. Funny how those same lefties are on every side of every issue. Brings to mind a familiar long face…Jean Kerrie.
118 Ushie
Stevo, ouzo tastes like liquidy licorice. But kicks like a rented mule.
Don’t listen to her, Stevo, ouzo tastes like a rented mule.
116 Stevo
I remember drinking a bottle of Ouzo in a restaurant on the Acropolis hill overlooking the rest of Athens ...
What, if anything, do you remember of the rest of the night?
114 Ushie
Ouzo tasted great in Greece
Well, no, I did my only-ever ouzo drinking in Athens, and it didn’t taste great. Indeed, it WAY didn’t taste great. It tasted like hangover-mouth right from the first sip. If the export version is [shudder] worse (and you’re not the only one who says so), well then what more warning does anyone need?
Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 24 at 02:46 PM • permalink#120: Nice lady. She was a good sport.
Glad to hear it. Maybe now I can try to forgive her husband for searing, searing his songs’ lyrics in my mind. Especially the one about the big red car.
Posted by Polish Frizzle on 2006 06 24 at 03:11 PM • permalinkI live in Great britain and work for the NHS, i hear the stupidest crap talked about America and its citizens every day, far too many people in the UK spout mindless anti western crap, they have been spoiled by living in a country were free speech realy is free and therefore worthless, they dont value anything because nothing costs them anything, i think the mother country needs a shot of aussie testosterone.
I think that every time I see Addamo in a thread, I’m going to re-post this lovely fact-spanking by Stop Continental Drift:
72 Addamo.
“Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention”Well mate, I am in Canada at the moment. How about the first 6 pages in today’s Globe and Mail and a feature inside?
“Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention”
The first ten minutes of EVERY news telecast I have caught on TV?
“Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention”
The single topic of conversation at the office?
“Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention”
It has knocked coverage of the Stanley Cup ice hockey finals right out of the arena - which in Canada really takes something.
“Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention”
And where are YOU located AddamsFamily, to make the assertion Hardly anyone Canada is paying any attention?
Lakemba, Sydney?
What. A. Fuckwit.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift!It couldn’t have anything to do with the ever shrinking coalition following Japan’s plans to withdraw from Iraq now could it?
In fact, Karl Rove asked the Japanese to announce their withdrawal at this time in order to distract from the bank account thing, hoping that the simultaneously occuring notion of Dubya the geopolitical blunderer and Bushitler the all-observing genius overlord will make lefties’ brains shut down. (Hey, if it worked for James T. Kirk…)
Unfortunately, it appears even Karl has overestimated the amount of remaining brain matter on the Left.
Would just like to reciprocate my fondness for the good old US of A.
A Digger mate and I stopped by in DC last year to pay our respects at Arlington Cemetery and then somehow spent most of the rest of the day (and night) at the Chophouse Brewery trying every beer on the menu.
We were hard pressed to pay for a single ale by that wonderful crowd. Your mob made us feel like Kings in old poems.
We are blood brothers stretching back to July 4, 1918 at Hamel.
We always will be, eh Ubique.
Rock solid allies.#114 & 116, I have never tasted ouzo, but I have had arak, which I’m told is similar. Arak is a licorice-tasting clear liquid that, if you put in a dollop of water, turns a milky white. It will knock your back teeth out, and is possibly the worst stuff I’ve ever had in my life. But I’ve been thinking about buying a bottle (if I can find it), since they make it in that part of Iraq where Zarkie bit the big one.
Back in the 50’s, my dad talked about moving us to Australia (you were giving away homestead land then, I think). We never did go, and as much as I love America, I’ve always had that small regret that we didn’t.
#5 Real Jeff S.,
That’s if you can understand the Strine they speak, and translate it into English.Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 06 24 at 09:00 PM • permalinkEven our cops rock! Two scumbags with one shot - effective and efficient policing!
Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2006 06 25 at 03:32 AM • permalinkOuzo, proper ouzo, Grecian deadly original ouzo, is opiated. Yes opiated. That’s why they can’t export it to the USA. That might be why one wants more of it later, no matter how bad it tastes. Have I mentioned how bad it tastes? It tastes like furniture polish filtered thru camel kidneys, and that’s the refrigerated version, which I think is illegal in Greece. It is liquid evil. It will fuck with you physically and mentally along with tasting bad, ouzo will, real ouzo anyway. It might not but really it will. Memory blackouts? Dramatic lapses in judgement? Lengthy wanderings thru incomprehensible foreign cities? Ill-recalled conversations w/ police & taxi drivers? Ouzo, proper ouzo, offers you all of these, and much more.
Greek Orthodox Satanists, if any existed, would have ouzo as part of their hideous sacrament. But none exist, probably because if any ever did, they tried that and it killed them. Oh it’s bad, ouzo is, is alls I’m sane.Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 25 at 09:37 AM • permalinkI don’t have a thing to add except that I’m really looking forward to visiting Australia in 2008.
I mean, you guys have the only surviving German WWI tank. How cool is that?
Posted by John Nowak on 2006 06 25 at 04:36 PM • permalinkAnyone notice Lefty doesnt want to link to this site.
http://anonymouslefty.blogspot.com/2006/06/america-has-affection-for-us-because.html
Sorry Texas Bob, I left for a while.
To answer your question - I think that there is far more in US and OZ to admire than to dislike.
Posted by gustov_deleft on 2006 06 25 at 09:34 PM • permalinkActually, what doesn’t seem to be known here is that Krauthammer is (or was—not sure on citizentship) a Canadian, which just goes to show that the best ones end up emigrating to the States.
Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2006 06 26 at 12:05 AM • permalinkApparently aniseed strongly resembles the musk of a bitch in heat, as an acquaintance of mine discovered much to his chargrin as a callow youth with a back pocket full of aniseed balls and the ardour of a priapetic great dane to contend with.
I won’t go into details, but suffice to say that in that particular part of Queensland (Toowoomba) such a close encounter would normally require Remington-enforced nuptuals if both participants were human.
since then I’ve studiously avoided Ouzo binges whenever canines are present- as a recidivist mouth-breather when bladdered, waking up with a bad taste in your gob would seem inevitable in these circumstances.
And if you doubt me, how about this?
Dogs love the scent and in greyhound racing the “rabbit” is scented with anise.
Once used to bait mouse traps.
Anise is poisonous to pigeons and was once used to bait them.
Purported to keep away the “evil eye”.
Essential oil used to prevent mold in paste.
Once used as bait by dog thieves.So that’s why there’s never any topknots fronting the bar at the Hellas Club.
If you think Ouzo is vile, you’ve obviously never had the pleasure of chugging retsina (particularly the pine flavoured variety) which has a bouquet like furniture polish and the subtle piquancy and fruit of kerosene. Little wonder they’re forever fighting in the Balkans, given their fondness for the consumption of liquids which would be only used elsewhere as a low octane fuel or an industrial solvent.
I spent a lot of time in OZ in the ‘90s. I thought at the time that the country was the realization of the country Rand described in Atlas Shrugged. Of course, I got that impression from reading the newspapers, who described Howard as “The Lizard of Oz”.
Howard’s success has made it clear that Australians have found their voice, and it isnt the editorial page of The Age or the SMH.
Moptop - you may have mixed your PMs re ‘Lizard of Oz’?
I think mainly used by UK press to describe Howard’s predecessor Paul Keating when Keating touched the Royal Person in steering her towards a greeting line-up. May have even put his arm around Her Maj.
Although Oz press unoriginal, so may have later recycled the line to refer to JoHo.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 26 at 03:33 PM • permalink147 Habib
since then I’ve studiously avoided Ouzo binges whenever canines are present- as a recidivist mouth-breather when bladdered, waking up with a bad taste in your gob would seem inevitable in these circumstances.
Well said, sir, well and sensibly said.
So there, alla you other mockers and blatherskites, you doubters and you ouzophiles especially! That stuff what he just said there, that tells you lot what’s what, is what it does. I think. So there!Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 26 at 09:17 PM • permalinkIt’s easy to see why Americans love Australia, and by extension all things Australian. I’m certainly a fan!
The problem is… which things are really Australian? With U.S. companies slathering the word “Australia” on their Chinese-made stuff, I wonder how many Americans end up fooled. Even the French know that names are important—you don’t see “Champagne” from anywhere else. Why does Australia put up with it?
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Yep.