Heehee, Craven - we certainly DO laugh at it ourselves. I adored that bit of satire!!! Why I shared it, I guess....
Sounds like Rommel did say something nice...
dlowan wrote:Er - I so don't want to fight with you, Msolga - but I think that a perfect example of the li'l country thing I just mentioned.
We are not fighting, Deb, we just disagree. My comments are a response to The Big Country Thing.
I think I have more in common with Mark Latham than I'd imagined.
So, like, . . . what's yer country gonna do when it grows up?
I could ask you the very same thing, Setanta.
Setanta wrote:So, like, . . . what's yer country gonna do when it grows up?
Hopefully, become a mature, multi-cultural society, whose myths & legends don't rely so much on wars. And an independent country with its own head of state (which we currently don't have) which doesn't jump when it's told to jump by anyone (as is currently the case in our relationship with the US & was previously the case with Britain). Sounds good to me!
Actually, Msolga, except for the head of state thing - which is just window dressing, let's face it - much as I would like a change here - you pretty much described Canada.
I would be happy with that - only I want us to stay sillier and funnier.
Yeah, Canada is wise!
Let's import them in massive numbers!
And we ARE silly & funny, despite the sad & sorry state of our current poltical leaders. Let's face it, if you don't laugh you cry!
dlowan wrote:Heehee, Craven - we certainly DO laugh at it ourselves. I adored that bit of satire!!! Why I shared it, I guess....
I neglected to say so there but I think that's the best net satire I have ever read.
Oh well - the pre-Iraq II Intelligence stuff is starting to look tres bad for Howard, no?
And the Allan Jones thing? Mind you, who would believe a thing Jones said...
Who? Our prime minister seems very receptive. God help us!
dlowan wrote:Actually, Msolga, except for the head of state thing - which is just window dressing, let's face it -
You're happy with the Queen of England as your head of state?
Nah.
But I think there are more important things to worry about.
I think it's very important ... part of "growing up", if you like.
Yeah - I guess I just think it is, as I said, window-dressing - a powerless head of state - who cares, really?
I mean I worked for the republic campaign, and will again, but personally I think we "left home" a long time ago.
It was a real factor in 1975, though Kerr acted AGAINST advice - but I think we fixed all of the legal stuff, no?
I think having an appropriate Oz head of state (it appears we have to have one!) is important, symbolically ... We are hardly the predominantly Anglo-born/thinking population we used to be. Things have changed enormously, yet the head of state hasn't changed.
You just have to watch the resistance to the mere idea to see how important it is to the entrenched establishment. I believe it would be an enormous boost to a more genuine multi-cultural society if we chose our own head of state. We are not a satellite of England, & haven't been one for quite a while now.
Msolga - I am not, as I said in the beginning, arguing against it - I just think there are more important battles right now.
I am glad Latham has put it on the agenda now, though.
I am simply, for instance, saying that I would be sad to see it become an election issue, since, sadly, many working class electorates seem to be anti-change - I am concerned it might become an election loser for Labor.
Except for dinosaurs like Howard, many Liberal voters are pro-republic. It was upper crust seats, like mine, which voted FOR it - and many traditional Labor seats which voted against.
Of course, Howard committed a master-stroke by linking the republic with a disliked model, so it is hard to know how those electorates would have voted with a more popular model - but we do not know.
Do you get my drift now?
I mean, I could ask someone from Rommel's family (better: Urs, she lives closer to them :wink: ). Besides, I'm an expert about Rommel: I've stayed several times just some yards away from his last headquarter in La Roche-Guyon
Dlowan
I see where you're coming from - or looking toward - the next election.
I was responding to Setanta's question about what we wanted to be when we "grow up" in Oz. Getting rid of a foreign head of state is definitely one of my prerequisites.
I think there were too many different agendas which lead to division in the last republic campaign .... Grrrrrrrrrrr/hissss to Turnbull!
