there are still a few heros left in the western world...aussie p.m. john howard

[gardenweasel]

a bit of a long read...but,the guy`s amazingly ballsy...and sharp as a hound`s tooth....i feel much better about our world with guys like howard and new canadian p.m. stephen harper giving us hope....


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20522245,00.html

a sort of synopsis...

"PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s left-wing intelligentsia, questioning its loyalty to the nation over the past decades.

In a speech delivered last night for the 50th anniversary of the conservative magazine Quadrant, Mr Howard said the left had a history of denigrating the nation and was now doing the same with the war in Iraq, describing Islamic terrorism as the new tyranny.

He said Australian universities were still breeding leftists and described pro-communists of decades past as “ideological barrackers for regimes of oppression opposed to Australia and its interests”, Fairfax reports today.

Mr Howard said the left was wrong in its view that the Cold War was an equal struggle between the ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union.

“It became the height of intellectual sophistication to believe that people in the West were no less oppressed than people under the yoke of communist dictatorship,” Mr Howard said in his speech."...


this guy`s got brass balls x10....


australia - surrounded by beaches, they drink beer in big cans, play football without helmets, national leaders who tell it like it is .....

i must really love america to stay here & not move to australia.....

btw...i do really love america....


aussie!...aussie!...aussie!...oy!..oy!...oy!...

 

[Jabberwocky]

this guy`s got brass balls x10.... :mj07:

thank god there is an Australian who listens to Rush Limbaugh...

they have idiots who hate leftists too and think dissent is anti-patriotic....

how refreshing.

"a bit of a long read"

yeah, those first 75 words were tough to get through...but the next 25 were ok.

 

[ImFeklhr]

Yeah, I wish the world had more conservatives that didn't think they were chosen by God to be in power.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I like Blair also but not near the balls of this fellow.

Funny isn't it GW with all the anti west/GW world sentiment the papers put on you--yet since Iraq war 3 major countries have had elections Aussie-Germany and Canada--all went from liberal to conservative leaders. Should we believe the press or "the people"

 

[smurphy]

I like Blair also but not near the balls of this fellow.

Funny isn't it GW with all the anti west/GW world sentiment the papers put on you--yet since Iraq war 3 major countries have had elections Aussie-Germany and Canada--all went from liberal to conservative leaders. Should we believe the press or "the people"

I hope your not too misled by those elections. The top issue in all 3 was the ECONOMY, not Islam or the war on terror. Basically, all 3 voted in more open and capitalistic ideologies, but at least 2 of these leaders would still be called borderline socialists in the US.

I'm not sure about Australia, but the new German chancellor Mirkel consistently blasted Bush and the war on Iraq in her campaign. It was so successful because the overwhelming majority there is against our action that Schroeder had to start bashing us too, just to have a chance.

Canada's other big issue was the rampant corruption in Martin's administration. A lot of what they did was simply taking out the trash. Iraq and terror didn't seem to be much of an issue at all. It was economy and corruption.

From what I can tell, Australia is culturally conservative. It's not actually so ballsy to make the comments Howard made in that country. The country is only 20 million people, and right now many are scared of immigration overrunning their small population - especially from non-compromising Muslims. From what I've heard, I like Howard - I know I like his comments on Islam.

So DTB, what happened in Spain?

 

[Jabberwocky]

smurph, that is so factual and hard to understand...too much nuance...those countries voted 'conservative' because they love gw and the good he is spreading in the world...and they hate 'liberals' like you becuase you just don't get it.

ps i agree on the islam thing too

 

[The Sponge]

a bit of a long read...but,the guy`s amazingly ballsy...and sharp as a hound`s tooth....i feel much better about our world with guys like howard and new canadian p.m. stephen harper giving us hope....

Yep weasal he has balls. This dope by supporting our failed policy has now set up his country for an attack. i wonder if he is another typical chickenhawk who hides behind the military but when push comes to shove he runs under the bed.

 

[smurphy]

I kinda doubt that Sponge. Aussies tend to be tough sons of bitches. And Australia has always been a target, regardless of their policies with the US. It was mostly Aussies killed in the Bali attack - that several months prior to Iraq. Bali was Australia's 9-11.

 

[MrChristo]

John Howard became PM because of 2 things...economics (as smurphy said), and the simple fact that the Labour Party (only real opposition) has been a total shambles for about a decade.

From what I can tell, Australia is culturally conservative. It's not actually so ballsy to make the comments Howard made in that country. The country is only 20 million people, and right now many are scared of immigration overrunning their small population - especially from non-compromising Muslims. From what I've heard, I like Howard - I know I like his comments on Islam.

Spot on.

He's basically just continued a 'policy' started in the early 80's to move us further (culturally and economicly) away from our 'roots' in Europe, to more SE Asia and the US...

...all well and good, but he's getting more and more 'conservative' and god-fearing the older he gets.

Some of his comments are quite right (things like immigrants should try to integrate into our society more...
...but then typically goes that 4 or 5 steps too far, now pushing for a 'quiz' and an 'oath' of loyalty to Australia for tourists entering the country!!

 

[redsfann]

Thanks, MrChristo, for the 1st hand knowledge of this topic and for replying to it.
What are the Kiwis thoughts on all of this? Are they like the Aussies, or do they have their own take on things(at least in regards to this topic?) Thanks in advance for your insights.

 

[phar.lap]

Some of his comments are quite right (things like immigrants should try to integrate into our society more...
...but then typically goes that 4 or 5 steps too far, now pushing for a 'quiz' and an 'oath' of loyalty to Australia for tourists entering the country!!

Ah....that "quiz" and "oath" was in fact a suggestion by the Opposition leader. Howard laughed it off as a gimmick, as it certainly was.

http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,20489450%5E1702,00.html

Good to see your up to speed down there Mr C.

 

[gardenweasel]

smurph would prefer the anti-american scroeder be back at the helm in germany.....

that chretien be back in canada....

speaking of nuance,take the screen names away,and you`d need a doctorate in nuance to tell some of the socialists on this board apart.....

spongy...there are so many countries under attack from radical islamists....that have zilch to do with america or it`s policies,,it`s hard to count them .....

does it hurt to be that stupid?....it should..

 

[MrChristo]

**** it!!

I just typed a perfectly intellegent, witty, intellectual, meaningful post...and somehow lost it!

Won't bother again. :sadwave:

...other than to say, sorry redsfann, I don't know enough about New Zealand politics/political climate to comment.
I do know that they are lead by a far less conservative gov. than we are...having said that, I'm pretty sure there was a reasonably big swing to the right last year...(shhh...don't tell gw )

Oh, and phar.lap (what's with the 'dot' all of a sudden?), BOTH party's have been debating/contemplating it for months.
Gimmick, yes, but laughed at, definately not.
(oh, and haven't you learnt anything posting on a US board??...Don't make fun of the Southern States )

 

[smurphy]

smurph would prefer the anti-american scroeder be back at the helm in germany.....

that chretien be back in canada....

speaking of nuance,take the screen names away,and you`d need a doctorate in nuance to tell some of the socialists on this board apart.....

spongy...there are so many countries under attack from radical islamists....that have zilch to do with america or it`s policies,,it`s hard to count them .....

does it hurt to be that stupid?....it should..

wtf are u talking about? mirkel bashed the us far more than schroeder did during the campaign. she won in a large part due to her anti-us stance.

i like harper.

why are you deciding my international views for me? at least i make it a point to LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT THESE COUNTRIES before spouting off. f off, wanker!

 

[phar.lap]

Oh, and phar.lap (what's with the 'dot' all of a sudden?), BOTH party's have been debating/contemplating it for months.

Thats just incorrect. Howard simply asked that people learn english before coming a citizen. Nothing about some "values" oath like that fat deadsh1t from the West.

 

[kosar]

speaking of nuance,take the screen names away,and you`d need a doctorate in nuance to tell some of the socialists on this board apart.....

Since you used the exact same 'line' to specifically describe smurphy and myself about 6 months ago, i'll have to assume you're once again talking about us. If I might ask, what brings you to the conclusion that I am a socialist?

Because I am against the Iraq 'war?'

Pure ignorance.

 

[redsfann]

Thanks for the reply, Mr Christo. Was just curious if Oz and NZ thought along the same lines or not.

Weseal--

you're so phukin dumb that you wouldn't know a socialist if one hit you upside your empty head. If you think that Smurphy and Kosar are socalists, you are as delusional as that Nazi piece of garbage freeze is.

 

[Chadman]

Getting back to the original thread post, I know I'd feel a lot better about the world and especially our country if we had a leader that was "sharp as a hounds tooth."

 

[MrChristo]

As opposed to your leader, who's as sharp as....:shrug: ....um....:shrug: :shrug: ....


...anyway...The moral of my last story went something like this...
...I think the major 'influence' of conservatism in this country is age, maybe more-so here than other places...
...we know the pop. is getting older and older, the vast majority of voters are 40+...and the 'boomers' after the war are now approaching 60.
These are the generation that grew up distrusting/disliking Asians for 1) er, just being Asians!, and 2) for 'taking over our country'!
Obviously, replace Muslims/Middle Eastern folk over the last 10 years or so.
and, obviously this mistrust/dislike filters down through the generations...you hear your dad swearing about 'nips' and 'wogs' you tend to believe the same things...

(...bit like Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show that 'convinced' a generation (or 2, or 3) that the Indians were all savage head hunters, who scalped white women for fun and raided every wagon train/settlement/home they could find...no doubt great theatre, but anyway...)

Maybe it's magnified by coming from a small place, but you always, always hear of people going to Melbourne/Sydney and playing "spot the Australian"..still, even now!!...
...It still doesn't occur to them that the Asian/Afghani/Fijian/whatever looking person was probably born here and even likely to be 2nd or 3rd generation Australian.

WE STILL HAVE A HUGE MISTRUST OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT TO US.

Is it the cause or effect?...Not sure, but it's a bit of a deadly cycle atm.
Obviously the majority are aging, conservatives...vote in aged conservatives...who in turn pander back to their base...to their patrotism...even trying to out-pander each other with rediculous gimmicks that have already been mentioned.

What will be interesting is the next 10-20 years...will the younger, "freer thinking", more modern generation break through into more and more positions of power...or will we all just become less tolerent and more paranoid as we grow older like everyone else?

Anyway...slightly OT I guess...but that's the way I see Australian society atm.

PS. Isn't a hounds-tooth a really old-fashioned type of jacket?

 

[gardenweasel]

mr christo..."WE STILL HAVE A HUGE MISTRUST OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT TO US."


excellent observation,mr c......let me extrapolate....

"particularly the ones strapping bombs on their asses"......

"particularly the ones that want sharia law integrated into our societies"....

"particularly the ones that resisit assimilation"....

there...i fixed that for ya`...."