Well said, Modifieddog. It is good to find someone like you on this thread.

I saw the film, Good Night, and Good Luck, this afternoon. It was about the undoing of Senator Joe MacCarthy by a TV news presenter at CBS. (Real story, I think) I thought there was at least one message for those posters who tried to malign Greg Barns - to dissent is not to be disloyal.

There is lot in that film that mirrors what has happened in Bush's America - the manufacture of fear to achieve his political ends (or those of his chief advisors.) And I think there are a lot of of us in australia who are convinced that that was what Howard did on the children overboard episode.

But most of all, the film shows that speaking up on issues which are important to the nation, but which happen to run counter to the populist fervour, will in the end do us all a lot of good.

Chek

Col Rouge, You really don't get it do you mate, if you are unable to understand the pregnant analogy try substituting pregnant with peaodphile, and see if that works for you. I dare say most of us know that you can't be a little bit pregnant, you are either racist, or you are not. Some of us are not, if you are why not come clean and say so. There are many more racists than non-racists, so you will be well defended, grow a spine, and tell the truth. The truth for some of us is that we have no particular axe to grind with any race, only criminals of all races. If they commit a crime, either lock them up or deport them, as criminals are people we have an oversupply of, we need more good citizens, if you can make a constructive statement as to how you believe that may be achieved, please bare your soul, the community is always looking for innovative ideas. Perhaps an intergration course should be mandatory for new immigrants, informing them of what is expected from them, perhaps a 2 year good behaviour bond, which if broken would mean deportment, let's try to get some positive constructive solutions, instead of argueing among ourselves.

how many of the "non racists" crack jokes about Americans?? racists all of ya ...

Get of this racist rant its garbage. Racism to me is spitting on people or beating them up over skin colour, for the only reason that they are that colour.

If you think Cronulla was racist you actully need to look at the long tolerance of the Anglos in Sydney, and re think who the racists (or intolerants or what ever word is faddish atm) really are.

The bad attitude is coming, as usual,world wide politically and socially , from the islamic adgenda.

You aren't supposed to evaluate a statement by whether it is racist, or by the degree to which it is racist. You're supposed to evaluate it by whether it is true or false. The judgment about its significance comes after the judgment about its truthfulness, not before.

** In 1995, Black residents of the United States were ten times more likely to commit murder than was the average White American. Furthermore, a typical Black was 24 times more likely to kill a White than the reverse. Because of race-motivated political corruption in law enforcement, a White caught harming a Black was five times more likely to be accused of a "hate crime" than a Black caught harming a White. Nonetheless, Blacks committed so many crimes eligible for "hate crime" status that they had four times the per capita rate for perpetrating "hate crimes," as compared with Whites. **

Those statements are all true, and they are racist. Racism can be the truth. When racism and political correctness are in conflict, the racism is usually the truth, and the political correctness is usually either a polite fiction or a subversive lie.

i always thought racism was actully being repulsed by skin colour and physical features, the other disliking was judgment on a personal or general scale.

Jenab you do have a point there tho, if the "stats" conflict with the PC dogma its attacked by callign it racist. Most people don't like to be labelled as a racist. So the name calling works.

Well on some people, me, i am not worried what the left call me, i feel fine saying islam is vile and pathetic.

Its the word tolerance that spins me out, its instantly implys a rightious stand against natural judgment.

To everybody,

I am not able to make any sense of Greg Barns' article. I assume we are two or three generation gapes removed. So my comments are directed at the heading only.

Australia- a racist backwater.

What does racism (racist) mean to you? How does your understanding of these words fit the recent Sydney problems, described by the police as racist and white supremacist?

Dictionaries aside, these words, in accordance with there common usage, convey a lie, race is rarely relevant, maybe incidental but always the words are used for character assassination, used to creation of guilt complexes etc., always a distraction from the problems at hand. The problems are never fixed only suppressed.

Remember 'One Nation'. Ten percent of Australians supported One Nation's published policies, expected or assumed policies, dealing with multiculturalism and immigration and other areas when the government ignored the will of the people. There were some evil people (including anti-Semites) in high places in One Nation who white-ant-ed the party. Intelligent men behaving like morons.

These 10% of Australians, a small part of those who reject multiculturalism, would and did, shrivel up and disappear when accused of racism.

The use of “white supremacist”, suggests that 'racist' is loosing it's effect. With John Howard saying Australians are not racist, one can understand Laurie Oak's anger.

Those old enough may remember the 70's when we were told Australians could not be racist because we were not a race. But those who were a race (Italians, Greeks etc.) could be discriminatory on the basis of race.