Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Australia, I discovered on my recent tour, has many things going for it: consistently good coffee, friendly, easygoing people with a colorful turn of phrase and a great sense of humor, a growing economy, a resurgent conservative movement, and, of course, the constant thrill of never knowing whether today is going to be your last on earth before succumbing to death by taipan/saltwater crocodile/great white shark/box jellyfish/Sydney funnel web spider, etc.
BUT..... (And it is a big but). Australia is politically correct almost beyond belief. Here's a recent example of that rampant, busybodying, left-leaning, disapproving, stultifying, life-draining, kill-joy Aussie PC in action.
It concerns two swimmers from the Australian Olympic swimming team who have been censured - and punished - for posting photos of themselves on Facebook posing and smiling, in a gun shop in the US.
Now I appreciate that guns are not necessarily as lovely as: cute kittens, baby polar bears emerging for the first time from their snow burrows, people of all colors and creeds holding hands under a rainbow, the smile of an African child who has had facial reconstructive surgery provided by a charity to counteract some kind of hideous birth deformation, a kindly old lady who has just been helped across a busy road by a boy scout, a Free Tibet sticker on the back of Richard Gere's 4 x 4, eternal world peace, etc.
On the other hand, guns do give a lot of people a lot of innocent pleasure and they are not, so far as I know, illegal. So what, exactly did these boisterous young men do that was wrong?
D'Arcy and Monk caused an uproar after they posted an image of themselves in a US gun shop carrying high-powered weaponry on social media website Facebook.
The pair were immediately ordered to take the photo down as soon as the AOC were made aware of it.
They caused an "uproar", did they? Hmm. I think what this means is: "a handful of left-leaning puritanical anti-gun freaks decided to kick up a fuss, got the story into the media because of the Olympics connection, and the Australian Olympic Committee, being too craven and PC and career-safe to dismiss it as a non-story, felt compelled to condemn a photograph which should really have been none of its business."
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May '11
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
I hope none of these busy bodies google the Australian Olympic shooting team. They might come across something like this: http://www.ausshooting.org/index.php
While no one is grinning while holding weaponry, the whole site is full of references to shooting weapons.
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
@kennethgauck. Ban them! Ban them NOW!
Aug '11
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Following that link and then another led to this hilarious story http://au.sports.yahoo.com/football/news/article/-/13917056/euro-lviv-mayor-dismisses-racism-allegations/ straight out of "Borat".
Mar '11
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Guess where the Australian swim team held a team building day out while training in the U.S. in 2007? A gun range.
Apr '11
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
I've just read your blog on the Sunday Telegraph. Yesterday I listened to your podcast. All I can say is that your time spent at that Adriatic villa has sure put a full-charge into your battery. You are En Fuego! Rage On, mate!
"Easier said than done, of course – as I was reminded yesterday when I Tweeted it under the headline "How to rescue capitalism…." only to have some Twentysomething smartarse Tweet back 'Rescue it? Bury it!' "
"This is the kind of fifth-form, sub-Banksy political analysis which passes for conventional wisdom these days. It's the dominant strain of thinking at the Guardian, at the BBC, among the studio audience at Channel 4's apocalyptically lame 10 O'Clock Live, on Twitter, in the right-on brains of groovester opinion-formers all the way from Ben Goldacre to Graham Linehan to Polly Toynbee – and, of course, across the world in the entire Occupy movement. Capitalism, they all maintain, has failed."
Edited on June 10, 2012 at 4:08pmJul '10
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Read more Ricochet.
Feb '11
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Never trust anyone who is unnerved by the concept of ordinary people having the capacity for self-defense.
Jun '10
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
James Delingpole:
Now I appreciate that guns are not necessarily as lovely as: cute kittens, baby polar bears emerging for the first time from their snow burrows, people of all colors and creeds holding hands under a rainbow, the smile of an African child who has had facial reconstructive surgery provided by a charity to counteract some kind of hideous birth deformation, a kindly old lady who has just been helped across a busy road by a boy scout, a Free Tibet sticker on the back of Richard Gere's 4 x 4, eternal world peace, etc.
James: You have been taken in by the haters. The BSA (Boy Scouts of America) does not allow gay men to be scoutmasters. Thus, the entire organization is filled with vicious, small-minded, troglodytish, hate-speechifying specimens of humanity. Oh, and what's worse, they like God (and say right out loud that they do). Scouting is worse than the Hitler Youth.
They should be banned from helping little old ladies cross busy streets. This should be turned over the Department of Elderly Pedestrian Street-Crossing Transportation--it's a little-known bureaucracy created by an obscure clause of Obamacare.
Edited on June 10, 2012 at 4:29pmJul '11
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Upcoming items that will also surely cause an uproar:
Australian swim team members drive a car - and it's not a Prius.
Australian swim team members eat protein that is not tofu-derived.
Australian swim team members swagger about in their tiny bathing suits, hurting the self-esteem of the chubby and hideously out-of-shape crowd.
Australian team members celebrated a victory by swimming faster than their competitors, thus failing to produce equality of results for all the competitors. They were therefore stripped of their medals per the new IOCC/IMF rules, then given a conciliatory lolly for their efforts.
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
@chriscampion. Love it!
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
@herkybird. Are you suggesting - and if you are, I agree that this is an excellent idea - that Ricochet should fund me (and family) annually to stay at this place in order to put fire into my loins for the greater edification of my beloved readers?
Peter Robinson, are you listening?
Dec '10
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Correct!
Aug '10
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
I suppose quicklime and prickly pears would be one way of putting fire into your loins.
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
Just yesterday I went to the local shooting range--yes, we still have a few in Northern California--where my eldest son, a college friend of his and I enjoyed blazing away, rather ineffectually in my case, at orange clay pigeons with our el cheapo WalMart shotguns.
I hereby abase myself for this thoughtless act of violence, or whatever it is about the hobby that so agitates the world generally, and the Australian Olympic Committee in particular.
Apr '12
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
I am surprised the Australians let you into their country with all your green watermelons heresy. You could always hire those Australian swim team fellows for body guards as they seem to still have some of that tie-me kangaroo-down spirit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHQeKQ5gYaw&feature=youtube_gdata_player
May '10
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
I'm certainly not taking sides with the ridiculous indignation over this picture. On the other hand, someone needs to smack these nitwits upside the head and teach them how to handle firearms. I realize the guns are almost certainly unloaded, but you never hold even an unloaded weapon in a cavalier manner so that other people (or parts of your own body) are in front of the barrel (I'm looking at you, crossed-pistols boy). Those pistols should be pointed straight up or straight down. Also, every firing range I know would instantly admonish shotgun boy to open the chamber while he's carrying.
Buy the guns, lads, and find a real man who can show you how to handle them. You look like idiots.
Edited on June 10, 2012 at 9:41pmMar '12
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
PLEASE NOTE - This originally appeared on my podcast/political site Solid Principles on June 6th, 2011 I Don’t Call Australia Home… Anymore
“No matter how far, or how wide I roam, I still call Australia home” – Peter Allen
Peter Allen’s song ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ has become the unofficial expatriates anthem. While I have dual citizenship with America and Australia, I have noticed the land down-under has become a land I don’t consider home anymore. They have fallen pray to the beast of political correctness, and attack those that don’t conform to their ‘group-think’ mentally.
END OF PART 1
Edited on June 10, 2012 at 9:53pmMar '12
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
The results from the Australian federal election of 2010 showed a complete rejection of the uber left policies of the Labor Party. It resulted in a hung parliament, and Labor forming a minority government. It was a complete turnaround, after the 2007 Kevin Rudd lead Labor kiboshed the 13 year run of John Howard’s Liberal/National coalition. In June of 2010, the once golden boy was now on the verge of heading towards defeat in the upcoming federal election. Sensing a loss, the Labor Party grouped to topple Rudd in a leadership challenge, bringing in Julia Gillard. Since becoming Prime Minster, Gillard has not taken the hint from the slap down given to Labor during the 2010 election, and is now pushing ahead to impose a carbon tax. Global Warming you see, is the unofficial state religion.
END OF PART 2
Edited on June 10, 2012 at 9:54pmAug '10
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
James Delingpole:
They caused an "uproar", did they? Hmm. I think what this means is: "a handful of left-leaning puritanical anti-gun freaks decided to kick up a fuss, got the story into the media because of the Olympics connection, and the Australian Olympic Committee, being too craven and PC and career-safe to dismiss it as a non-story, felt compelled to condemn a photograph which should really have been none of its business."
"Politically correct wimps in the media industry caused an uproar Sunday by attacking a random bunch of young guys taking pictures in a completely different country. Sources say the spineless journos went a step too far when they started trolling Facebook for images they found personally offensive, then spewed their hate speech across the entire country of Australia.
"Some have called for the deportation and defenestration of persons using innuendo, weasel words, and vague pronouns to astroturf fake controversies over non-issues. The Writers Guild of Australia, the Columbia School of Journalism, and Pravda did not respond to requests for comments on this story."
Now all I need is an agent and some column inches...
Mar '12
Re: Australia: Where Fun is Verboten
If the American right feel their Mainstream press is in total cahoots with left, then they would be pretty shocked by the Australian press. Today on Drudge, the point was driven home with the headline PAPER: Activist calls for forcibly tattooing ‘climate change’ deniers. This puke filled article was written by Richard Glover for the left leaning Fairfax Newspaper flagship ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’.
The dangers of bone-headed beliefs
Surely it’s time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies.
Not necessarily on the forehead; I’m a reasonable man. Just something along their arm or across their chest so their grandchildren could say, ”Really? You were one of the ones who tried to stop the world doing something? And why exactly was that, granddad?” Entire article at SMH.com.au
It’s not just Fairfax that does the bidding for the left in Australia, that job was perfected long ago by the state-owned media wing The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC acts exactly like a state sanctioned NPR, that not only establishes the narrative, they reinforce the group-think mentality as well.
END OF PART 3
Edited on June 10, 2012 at 9:54pm