The smallmindedness and boarishness portrayed by many of the oneliners in this article can only bring me to say:

'“Booyakasha Kym Huynh! Big Up Yourself!”'

Wildcat

Kym has probably only ever seen Auckland city central. He's obviously never spent time in the huge parts of NZ that reflect a friendly but closed society.

SO John Howard only made the seconds in Cricket & Rugby at school did he?
I guess thats nowhere near as impressive as an "associate" lecturer.

To identify Howard as the liar he is - and how more and more Australians appear willing to overlook his consistent lies in return for low interest rates - is one single criticism; it's not a conclusion that Australia is a bad place.

Of course Australia's a great country, and that's why people who love it so much, like I do, are so saddened at the direction Howard has taken it. It doesn't mean I'm about to leave the country; that's the easy way out.

People aren't about to make life easy for the Howard cheersquad members by leaving Australia to them. Instead we voice our objections to him and his government as is our right in a liberal democracy. Telling people to leave if they don't like it is primary school juvenility.

For jimmyj and others, Howard is a liar who has made Australia a less fair place. Australians don't care about that enough to throw him out and replace him with an inept ALP opposition. However, should the economy go bad or interest rates rise suddenly, Howard would be toast and he knows it. Australians generally have no great love for Howard or care whether he is uncool, as long as the nation is relatively prosperous.

This doean't mean that people shouldn't critcise Howard and hold him accountable. It doesn't mean that people who do that should leave Australia. If you could grow up a bit you would think before you fire off a nasty, shallow post.

jimmyj says:
"- where on earth is a better place to live than Australia?
- If you dislike the government and the people of Australia so much, you have a right to leave, why not exercise it?"

Changing the subject and attacking the man, not the ball?

So can you put your hand on your heart, jimmyj, and say that you really think Howard is honest, that he told the truth on WMDs, children overboard, AWB funding of Saddam Hussein.

Just give a straight answer, yes or no, and try not to abuse me in the process.

I agree. Australia is a great place to live, but despite, not because of Howard. And it could be much, much greater, if we had a real leader as PM, not a base, dishonest, narrow minded populist only interested in keeping himself in power.

Appear to get a few noses out of joint here - may as well keep up the good work.

Please point out where I stated my support for John Howard or that he was completely honest?

In terms of playing the "man and not the ball" how about the statement "why are Australians uncool, because they don't care". This is the statement that I find offensive because unlike so many statements labelled as such on this site - this is a racist generalisation.

Let's try a simple formula:
- Why are Indonesions so (insert derogatory comment), because (insert derogatory reason).

If I was to make a sweeping and derogatory generalisation about say, people from China, it would be racism. Of course it is impossible to be racist about Australians...

Pathetic!