This will hurt me...

Is there anything that says AUSTRALIA more than a little bloke chomping down on broccoli and potato? I doubt it! For the title of the previous post, I decided to run with the very famous observation of Samuel Johnson, but in reality, I am inclined to to agree with Ambrose Bierce's observation some century or so later: In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first. The idea of being intensely proud of one's country is always one that has interested me. Now, I like Australia, a lot. I think that it is the best place to live in the world. I think that we have the best food, (plenty of) the best looking sheilas, the best beaches, the best sharks, crocs and easily the best poisonous biting and stinging things. So, you know, we've a lot of things to be proud of. But what we've seen appear is a sort of oddly quixotic yobbis...

For those of you not here in Australia, you may have missed the 2020 Summit held over the weekend. There were many different ideas thrown around, some worthy, and some less so. Overall, I think that is was a positive exercise. Lavartus Prodeo offer a neat summary here . The one suggestion that I have been amused by is the suggestion that we should change our national anthem. We tend to have this 'discussion' every five or so years, so should not take a summit to flog this dead horse. That said, I reckon that Advance Australia Fair is a rubbish song, and I find it a bit embarrassing really with its lameness. Now PM Kevin Rudd has already knocked this one on the head , but this has not stopped the arguments spreading like wildfire . I personally have been advocating change for a long time, and now have the forum to do it! I have long argued that there already exists two quintessentially songs out there that would be perfect for Australia's next national anthem. My first ch...