Oh, that Australia could have the open free press and the quality investigative journalists of the US coupled with America's far more relaxed laws of libel and slander where a public official that puts himself on a pedestal is considered to have put himself up as a target for disparaging remarks and strong retaliatory arguments.

If Australia was a much more open society we would have far fewer of the Sydney RTA debacles and far more insight into the operations of our governments.

Nice piece Mr Bozic, but I predict it will fall - in both its message and its analysis - on deaf ears.

Isn't it so much more comforting to regurgitate someone else's thoughts, rather than have to think for yourself.

It is one of the consequences of the "news as entertainment" culture. We first lost the need, then the will, to concentrate. Having lost this ability, we then become attracted to the form, rather than the substance, of news and information.

With simplification comes loss of detail. With grandstanding on a catchphrase comes the destruction of shade, of nuance, and in its place we are left with a black-and-white bigotry based on... what? National Nine News?

Many of the questions on this forum suffer this treatment.

You're either with us or agin' us. If you're agin' us you're a dill. If you're with us you're smart.

Very few submissions - and I happily include myself in this number - take the trouble to comprehend the question, instead just roll ahead with a pat phrase they think they heard on Lateline, or a cute quote from wikipedia.

As Victor Frankl said "The last of the human freedoms [is] to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way".

I think we are well down the road to giving away that freedom.

Sex can count....

Well said Pericles

I've also noticed that the well thought out posts of others are generally disregarded by a blogmeister/meistress while he/she cobbles together his/her own profound contribution.

Regarding the US, I have fond memories off it as a place to live and nurture one's (oldest) profession. Two years in Fort Hood Texas and 3 months in Washington DC I luxuriated.

Its without doubt the center of the West in terms of power, thought and culture, if not taste (not).

I've found in the US and with visiting American gals in Australia that they're more assertive and sexually demanding than their Australian sisters.

In Texas as a 13 year old I was considered some sort of "British" sex object by 12 yo gals. Then, I just didn't know how to respond. American woman start way too young.

Now I'm not saying that sexual profiling defines a nation or its history completely, but its something all serious (personal) gigolos (PGs) should consider.

The weltschauung of the dedicated gigolo can indeed change the course of history.

One could put up an argument that Australia's own socio-sexual sophistication was "boosted" (so to speak) by Ameican serviceman, "overhere, oversexed and over her" in World War Two.

It wasn't only that Americans were paid more and better uniformed than their Australian comrades its just the these Yanks were able to hone their techniques far younger than their Australian brothers. They used charm rather than just "You wanna?"

Several books have been written on this subject but my profession demands more government funding.

Bruce wrote: Oh, that Australia could have the open free press and the quality investigative journalists of the US coupled with America's far more relaxed laws of libel and slander where a public official that puts himself on a pedestal is considered to have put himself up as a target for disparaging remarks and strong retaliatory arguments.

I lived in the USA for 3 1/2 years until a year ago, and in that time did not see any of the free press, open investigative journalism that was previously there. Since 9/11, journalism became very tame and its only in the last few months that they are once again, writing truth.
Any comment which appeared to be against the President was shouted down - shouting being the operative for many of the current affairs shows, the presenter/interviewers being so incredibly right wing, that any dissenting argument would be thown out. The current affairs shows I viewed were televised all over the country, not just in small states.

To get hold of good interviews and news, I had to source the Internet. Much of the news on American television is diluted and biased. A few good newspapers have hung in there with their reporting. How long ago did you live there Bruce? I fear that times have sorely changed.

I missed the good journalism and interviews in Australia, only to find that the same thing has happened here, weak, lacking in depth etc. The laws of libel and slander do mean that one can be publicly decried for deeds, and the main attacks were on those who did not agree with the Government.

It is so gratifying to see that a journalist as young as Mal Bozic has the wisdom to perceive the fundamental contradictions in the way that trendy lefties think. The inner city urban elites, desperate to display their social separation from the Great Unwashed, have adopted the pose of the eternal naysayers. They can always be relied upon to go into bat for any cause which is contrary to contemporary opinion just to prove that they are different.

This quest to display their presumed intellectual and moral superiority is rather amusing, coming from a caste of people who also unblinkingly maintain that everybody is equal. Their attitude is an amusing combination of social climbing superiority mixed with socialist Egalitarianism.

Unfortunately, too many of these witless people are prominent in the media and they therefore have the means to peddle their nonsense to our youngest generation. Young adults like Mahatma Sitting Duck or Scooper 9, who are desperate to display find a positive adult image for themselves, seize upon the trendy lefty slogans that are held up to them as the epitome of intellectual thought. They do this in the same way that pimply adolescent boys seize upon cigarettes as a means of displaying grown up masculinity.

The degree to which young people through “youth culture”are daily bombarded with anti western values can be appreciated by simply reading any youth oriented magazine available in any newsagent. These magazines consistently print articles conforming to the left wing Party line that emphasise anti establishment views, resentment against authority and a pro illegal drug agenda.

One recent copy of rock music magazine “REVOLVER” had a feature entitled “How a Cool Dude Knows When George Bush Is Lying to You.” The sort of body pierced, tattood, gun totin' "musicians" featured in this particular magazine seems to indicate that it is a magazine not directed towards young people who might be considered sophisticated.

But those young people do have a crying need to display that they are smart and sophisticated, and they are desperate for guidance from anyone who will show them how to be "cool."

Universities and coffee bars are always hotheads of dissent and limp leftie feelings. Chants for legalised dope and enforced unionism abound. Revolution fills the air and anti-establishment feeling pervades the atmosphere like cigarette smoke used to do in working mens clubs. It is always easier and cheaper to criticise the bloke in the Ferrari than to afford a Ferrari.

Mark is correct comparing Aus and USA, grass roots involvement in civic affairs is more common and encouraged in USA than Australia.

I wonder how many political decisions of the alternative superpower of the post WWII period were ever tested with the Soviet Public?

The challenge with contemporary society is not simply to view USA with objectivity but to find the balance when USA remains the only superpower.

The young will always rant and rave about the absolute beastliness of contemporary systems of civic and social order. It is because they do not understand how those systems function and how they need to function within those systems. The young expect the world to revolve around them and their every whim, just like their mothers did until recently.

Oh and questions of a free press – any nation which allows the unfettered receipt of ex-national internet news site can claim “a free press”, regardless of how its local news media might seem to appear “tame”. USA does not bar any off-shore news sites or newspapers. Australia does not bar any offshore news sites of newspapers. China does – if anyone wants to talk about freedom of the press – the current standard to measure against is “What happens here versus what happens in China or North Korea” (or USSR or Soviet block in years gone by).

The young will always revolt - as was (sort of) said -
a 20 year old who is not a socialist has not developed a sense of empathy and a 25 year old who is not conservative has not developed an intellect.

Having sympathy for the starving of Africa is one thing, having respect for the foremost supplier of aid to those hungry deserves greater consideration