Interesting Read (good for a laugh)

[james22]

Hope its not a repost...

Lol @ Magic Happens

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/o...-1225997563160

[TheInterceptor]

Haha, not bad. Amazed it didnt mention chev badges and the southern cross stickers.

[duaned]

LOL, that rant I consider to be true!

[aussiblue]

It's a pity the "Baby on Board" sticker got misused so its original purpose was lost:

Baby on Board is the message of a small (usually five-inch) sign intended to be placed in the back window of an automobile to alert the emergency services to the presence of an infant in the event of a crash. Small children are known to sometimes become trapped in footwells or even thrown from the vehicle in the event of crashes. Given this purpose, drivers should remove the sign if driving without a child on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_on_Board

I guess its also says something about our self-centred ego driven society that most other drivers thought these signs were aimed at them rather than the emergency services.

They probably had another benefit as having a baby on board perhaps also means a higher risk that the driver may be distracted through know faul of their own. I know my youngest hated being in a car and when he wasn't screaming for attention he was throwing his empty baby bottles or matchbox toys at the back of my head (and he had both strong lungs and a strong throwing arm).

[Ben73]

Who cares what stickers people on their cars.
I hate southern cross stickers, and MY FAMILY stickers, but if Someone wants them on their car, well good for them I guess.

I wanted to buy about 50 of those my family stickers and cover most of my back window with them.

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Who cares what stickers people on their cars.
.

Quoted for truth.

[Fled74]

Talk about a waste of bandwidth.

I have a "Baby on Board" sign on my car, for the exact reasons that Aussiblue pointed out above.

I also have a small Aussie flag sticker on my back window. I wasn't born here, but I'm proud of the fact that I'm a citizen. I'm pretty sure that other "non-white Aussies" who fly the little flags on their cars do so for the same reason. It's not subtle, but I don't see anything wrong with that.

[Ducati888]

Can someone explain the Southern Cross thing to me? I just don't get it.

It's visible in just about every country in the world, so why do some Australians think we own it?

Also, I saw a Chev badge on the back of an SV6 ute the other day. That brain-dead type stupidity should have had a mention in the article too.

[350125GO]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

Can someone explain the Southern Cross thing to me? I just don't get it.

It's visible in just about every country in the world, so why do some Australians think we own it?

Also, I saw a Chev badge on the back of an SV6 ute the other day. That brain-dead type stupidity should have had a mention in the article too.

I don't understand it either - being overly patriotic just strikes me as well.. American.

Chev badges are **** as well. Holden didn't spend 1 billion $$ so you could drop a Chev badge on your VE. Its even worse where I live, everything from VN onwards I have seen with Chev badges, esp the P Platers...

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

Can someone explain the Southern Cross thing to me? I just don't get it.

It came about after the Cronulla Riots by a certain group of people. But I would say it's moved away from that but still pointless as its not a uniquely Aussie thing no matter what people think.

.....

I actually laughed at that article. I wonder the people who are whining would be complaining if someone like Clarkson had have written it cause it sounds like something he would go on about.

[Whoosha]

The Southern cross can only be seen in the Southern hemisphere.I believe ,hence its use down under it is also found on a lot of our state an Navy flags . I quite like it

[aussiblue]

Also goes back to the Eureka Stockade Flag http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov....urekastockade/

[aussiblue]

The US confederate flag was also known as the Southern Cross and hence perhaps unfairly some now also see or connect racist or white power connotations in it and the Eureka flag's use. While it is used by such groups that wasn't the original use. See http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/raci...erate_flag.asp
http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=950 http://itsmycountrytoo.wordpress.com...zi-connection/ for some examples of how it has been misused.

[QUOTE]Noting the variety of racial groups that were involved in the Eureka Stokade its a bit odd that white supremisist and the like have adopted this flag.
The Eureka Stockade took place on the Ballarat
goldfi elds in Victoria, Australia in December 1854.
At this time on the goldfi elds there were about 25,000
diggers. The majority of diggers were British, especially
Irish, but they also included Americans, French, Italian,
German, Polish and Hungarian exiles as well as many
other nationalities. The largest nationality group was
Chinese. Aboriginal people were also present as
Native Police, miners, guides, wives and gold diggers.
Aboriginal people also traded cultural items and food.
Women on the goldfi elds were assisted by Caroline
Chisholm.
The rebellion was prompted by grievances over the
cost of a Miner’s Licence, which was imposed by the
government and enforced by the Gold Commission’s
police force. In late October and early November
1854, there were large gatherings of miners (between
3000 and 10,000 on four separate occasions) to
protest against offi cial corruption. On 11 November,
the Ballarat Reform League was formed, based on the
principle of the right of every citizen to vote.....[QUOTE]

http://www.teacherstoolkit.net.au/im...kaStockade.pdf

[aussiblue]

And from http://thingsboganslike.com/2010/01/...cross-tattoos/

As previously discussed on TBL, tattoos regularly adorn the Bogan’s body, advertising such things as warlike toughness, confected spirituality, femininity and cultural sensitivity. In the tradition of co-opting symbols it doesn’t fully understand, the Bogan tatt du jour is the Southern Cross Tattoo. A beautiful and evocative design derived from the celestial formation of the same name, the Southern Cross appears on the Australian flag, and also the flags of New Zealand, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

The Bogan, considering itself patriotic, is actually a nationalist, and being unaware of the distinction between these two things, believes Australia has a monopoly over a constellation that is visible from about fifty other countries the Bogan has never heard of. Subsequently, the Southern Cross Tattoo, or the “Aussie Swazie”, as it’s known in some circles, has become for the Bogan a symbol of ‘Aussie Pride’, a secret Bogan codeword for immense racial intolerance.

The Southern Cross Tattoo comes in a number of forms, from the popular and simple five star design, to those incorporating the outline of the Australian continent or a boxing kangaroo, and is sometimes adorned with such ‘patriotic’ slogans as ‘**** off, we’re full’, ‘we grew here, you flew here’, and ‘if you don’t love it, leave’.

These slogans first came to the attention of the wider public during the 2005 Cronulla riots, started when local Bogans became incensed that groups of Lebanese people were behaving like Bogans on ‘their’ beach. The Aussie Bogans attempted to send the Lebanese packing, but failed to make Cronulla 1/100th as scary for Lebanese people as Beirut. Southern Cross Tattoos have been proliferating in Australia ever since, TBL’s tattooist sources claim to be churning out about fifteen Aussies Swazies a week, a startling pace which shows no sign of slowing.

So, as the sun sets on another day of being a proud Aussie, the Bogan looks towards the skies only to be baffled by the strange appearance of a constellation that looks a possum sitting in a tree. It quickly ignores this astronomical anomaly, briefly glances at its tattoo and continues to scan the landscape for any stray Lebanese.