'Damn Fools That Walk Among Us'

After reading the massive (1,971 at midday today) comment thread following Piotrowski's piss-poor journalism on the - *sigh* - 'racist' stamps at New.com.au, I think I can be forgiven for thinking that Australia's experiment in mass education has been an abject failure.

Literacy - what's that? Ability to think straight - you're joking? Basic knowledge - get real! These days it's all bile by the bucketful, sheer criminal ignorance and kneejerk, bogan patriotism.

Mind you, a few brave souls*, who could see the point of objecting to Australia Post's exploitation of Palestinian/Australian history in the interests of Israeli PR, did their best to inject some sense, but like Gaza resisting the mailed fist of Israeli firepower, it was a hugely unequal contest.

Just for laughs then - and God knows we need a few - here's a sample:

A pox on both their houses:

"Truth has not meant anything to these people for a very long time. The only thing that matters is their desire to keep on killing each other over some of the most useless land on the planet. Anyone left with any grasp on reality has found somewhere else to live a long time ago." (John Alexiadis)

In the RSL I trust:

"If the RSL complained about this stamp I would then take notice, but since they aren't I think the stamp is great." (Bob Watson)

No Beersheba, no Australia:
 
"I can't believe how stupid the world is becoming - why can't people get a life? This is a commemorative stamp, nothing more and nothing less. Be proud of our Anzacs! We wouldn't be here without them." (Bruce Rogers)

A PHD in Middle East Studies from Scruffy Murphy's speaks:

"Sonja Karkar is a one eyed bigot. Unfortunately portions of both the koran and bible are grabbed and manipulated by very smooth talking individuals. The Koran (Surah 9:5) is a prime example of how imams can misinterpret and shove whatever information down the throat of the uneducated. Even the bible has moved towards the 15th century even though they still believe angels and those who can walk on water. The koran and those that teach it still keep women in the dark ages. That's why muslims still do female circumcision and force female children to marry grubby old men. Unfortunately muslims have stayed in the 4th century. Sonja has a degree and should be using it to ensure muslims bring their lifestyle into the 19th century. Even the Australian indigenous people are sort of trying to move into the 21st century which is way past the muslims. Sonja you really need to look around and use both eyes instead of keeping your head buried up your own fantasy land. You want these muslim idiots to continue their evil sadistic ways of strapping bombs on their children to kill reasonable civilians. I thought you had a major issue with common sense but it turns out you don't have any." (John Gee)

Chirp!

"John Gee, it is good to see someone with some sense. Walk down the streets of OUR country? now and it is hard to spot an Aussie." (Aileen Sparrow)

Rule Britannia:

"WHAT'S NEXT????? no more ANZAC DAY marches???? or NO Christmas decorations in shopping mall's????? Wait and see Australia, it's happening right now in Britain, THEIR Immigrants offended by that countries celebrations, and 2000 years of History being FORCED to be forgotten." (Alan Jones)

Chirp!

"Who is getting paid to allow these things to happen to our country. You come... you mix in. Nobody is forcing you to come." (Aileen Sparrow)

Love it or leave it:

"Don't like it head back to your beloved Palestine see how long you last there dodging bullets and grenades all because you want to winge over something that happened nearly 100 years ago. This country took you in respect it's laws and culture if still unhappy you know where you can fly back too. (Ralph Sinclair)

The Spirit of ANZAC:

"I couldn't agree with you more, The Media elevate sports stars as role models and then spends 90% of their time rubbishing them. when theres so many many fine examples out there like returned service personal, Life Guards, SES, Firemen, and police. All deserving of been elevated because they are active and continued to contrbute to all Australians well being. As far as ANZAC games like Tests its a farce. Most returned service men I know feel this way now because sports does not reflect the spirit of ANZAC. anymore. There's a difference between a good hearted sledging and outright abuse. Its wrong. However theres one sport that continues to show the ANZAC spirit and thats the Netball. Fiece in competition but none of the vitriol abuse that follows male dominated sports. Men could learn alot from our Woman sports personal. and so could the media... ANZAC is such a special time. Yet it should be celebrating the other 364 days of the year. So we are most defnitly on the same page.. (splittinghairs)

Piss off to bloody Palestine, bitch:

"Some silly b**ch wanting to make a song & dance about a patch of land that Australian soldiers fought, spilled blood & made the supreme sacrifice on, because it's Israeli & not Palestinian. Suffice it to say she's really s**thouse at history because when we fought on that land it was Palestinian but now that Australia Post has released stamps to commemorate these fine, brave Australian soldiers she's taking aim at Australia Post, claiming they're racist because that same land on which our courageous Australian soldiers fought is now Israeli. That's not Australia Post's doing nor is it the doing of our soldiers who fought there so the silly b**ch needs to put up & shut up or pack her bags & PISS OFF to bloody Palestine. (Steven Larkin)

Expert 1:

"Beersheba was at the time a town with a majority population of Druze not Palestine This name did not come into being until 1917 with the Balfour Declaration in England. This woman needs to read history from ALL sides. Any and all Arabs who lived in the land of Israel lived on rented land owned by absentee landlords living in Damascus, Beirut, Jordan and Cairo, so what would they know about land, all they did was destroy it or ignore it." (Peter Rodgers-Falk)

Expert 2:

"In 1917 Beersheba was occupied by Arabs (mainly Bedouins) and Jews. It had been occupied by the Turks since the 19th century. If anything this woman is insulting the memory of everyone involved in the incident by stating that the town was Palestinian. But more disturbing is the fact that one person's objection to a stamp is reported by the media but no mention is made of the reporter contacting people who are actually experts on the matter such as Peter Stanley. Has anyone heard of checking the facts before reporting?" (Lynda Marshall)

If only they'd read Sun Tzu:

"Well that's what they get for losing the war. They didn't know the Art of War by Sun Tzu. But given their disdain for anyone non-muslim back then that's their comeuppance. Know your enemy. Their Jews. Their inferior to us. Yeah that might be true, but their weapons aren't. Six days later. Besides they could have had peace ages ago." (Brian Preston)

Now if you ever run into Eric, whatever you do, don't mention Palestine:

 "You make it sound like ALL israel is occupied territory and demanded to be handed back. Very incorrect and you know that. The problems of the region stem from pommy interference and trying to construct an arab land to suit their need. That came about after the turk was driven out in 1917. Then in 1929, the poms nominated the land called Palestine from old roman times, be subdivided. It was all Israeli land. Only Jews helped fight for it... not arabs. Dont deny that as the Australian ensign of the lighthorse flew beside the jew star fighting for that land including Jerusalem. Research it. Israel is only a portion of its former land as it was subdivided in 1929 into syria, jordan and lebanon and a portion made aside for Palestinians. However, in 1947 the Jews presented a well formed government and societal structure and was granted statehood as Israel. The palestinian land has never been ratified nor statehood grated as the arabs in jerusalem claim they are palestinians also. As for occupied lands... your talking about some very small portions. West bank, golan height, gazza strip. It might interet you to know there is a reason why the international community has done nothing about this situation. Quite simply because it is legal. Makes you a fugging laugh with all this illegal rubbish eh?! And under international law, Israel is responsable to administer law in those areas. You might also be interested to know that all jerusalem belonged to the jews, however, jordan occupied and annexed the westbank in 1950. After the 3rd arab initiated war in 1967, the Isralis occupied 4 distinct areas. One of them being their own estbank. These are necessary to protect Israel from further wars. They were staging areas for egyptians syrians and jordanian forces when ever they decided to attack israel. Israel will never hand those lands back while ever the arabs are aggresive. Some say Israelis are aggressive... and correctly so... you fight aggression with aggression. With these lands forgathering forces lost, the arabs turned to attacking Israel during its Yom Kippur holy holiday in 1973. And paid terribly for that mistake. After 4 wars the arabs realised they cant remove Israel by conventional force even as a collectve. So ever since... Israel has been attacked by arab sponsored terrorrism called PLO and hamas and many ther names. None of these can be claimed to be any particular arab state and palestine is a ruse for those organisations existance without involving arabs. Should Israel decide to nuke all arabs... I won't cry lol." (Eric Holt)

One still, small voice:

"Another badly written story by ninemsn and a blue by Australia Post. Israel didn't exist until 1948 so how can they commemorate an activity with Israel in 1917? I'm confused." (*Mal Bowker)

Searching for an interesting debate in all the wrong places:

"Wow just read the posts - there is an hour of my life I will never get back, cannot believed I persevered in the hope of reading an interesting debate. On the plus side I did learn (although I cannot confirm the accuracy of the statistics quoted) that 50% of Australians have an IQ of less than 100. I challenge this! After the brain snapping task of reading this crap - a mistake I will be sure never to repeat - I am convinced it is a much higher percentage of damn fools that walk among us. Please forgive any poor grammar, typos etc. but I have lost the will to care." (Tania Simmons)