Well - another right royal fanfare that will last forever has begun!!
The TV and newspapers and magazines will waste God knows how much time and paper on this crap.
Printable View
Well - another right royal fanfare that will last forever has begun!!
The TV and newspapers and magazines will waste God knows how much time and paper on this crap.
Yes isn't it wonderful news! I'm going out to buy a Union Jack today, just a little one I can hang off my ute aerial. Can't wait 'til the souvenir plates and cups come out, started collecting them with the Queens Silver Jubilee and then really got into it with Charles and Diana! Can't wait for the wedding!
Cheers
Michael
Not to worry Artme it will be intermingled with footballers antics, cricketers dealings with bookies, Politicians theft of public funds. Oh can't forget the Goldcoast yearly money maker with squillions of schoolies off their faces. :U
Now who is going to make the most of it Murdoch, Packer, or a joint venture :roll:
I am sick of it already:roll:
Roll on the republic
Cheers,
Jim
bread and circuses
I was very happy to hear the engagement announcement and I will eagerly watch what ever degree of pomp and ceremony is lavished on the wedding ceremony, but in the mean time, like Christmas, I don't want to hear another word about it until the day before the event.
Sure has, and Ch 9 started with supposition after supposition - I only saw 5 seconds worth when I came in the door and saw the carp on the box, tried turning it over and SWMBO called from the deck she was waiting for RPA to come on.
It was news when Lateline broke it Monday night, beyond that I don't give a :badair:
:bartmoon: to it all. :U
Sometimes it helps to think things through and ask what is the downside?
The Telegraph has 4 pages devoted to 'scandal' and celebrities behaving usually badly. I'm sure that none of you read this 'tripe' or read New Idea or Who magazines, except at the doctor's waiting rooms....but young people dote on image and seek to emulate the world of these would-be Paris Hiltons.
I don't see anyone bemoaning much about this as 'crap'?
So what exactly is wrong with an example being set for our kids of a well behaved happy loving couple pronouncing their love for each other and announcing a marriage?
It worked with Mary. I don't see much difference.
Greg
She's good to look at, so that's a bonus.
It's not what they are doing, it's the media circus that will regurgitate the same news article on the news every night that gives me the carps.
It brings in the dollars Arthur, that's what its all about. All the time this kind of stuff sells magazines and papers they will keep printing it. :)
Do you think that would have kept it out of the magazines and papers? I don't think so.
I agree Greg, good points.
Personally I don't read magazines or newspapers and seldom watch TV so it wont be a real problem to me anyway but as you say, nothing much wrong with hearing some pleasant news for a change. And lets face it, You don't have to watch it on tv (I think from memory there is an "off" switch somewhere) and you don't have to read the articles in papers or magazines if you don't want to. We can all make the choice.
Well said Greg and John totally agree, I am sick of hearing of sports dumbo's being called hero's and getting away with what they do. Personalities doing what we would be thrown in jail for yet they walk the streets free. As I said the media magnets will earn the big $$$$ from suckers.
I think its great :2tsup: they are getting married world wide we have more Royals than ever before.
Republic :doh: careful what you wish for and review history very carefully.
The unfortunate thing is, while commercial news fall over themselves to show something new every night or regurgitate it then it will get in the way of reporting real news.
But then, I don't watch the commercial networks for news anymore. :shrug:
I am going to the wedding. We will be sitting in the front row. Move over liz. :;
:D
Now there is a statment that scares me. You aspire to a void....:D
The media make money from selling ads, and they base the price on eyeballs. They are not your friend and have no compulsion to educate nor inform you beyond whatever gets your attention.
It's just like blaming McDonalds for obesity. They don't care if your fat, they are in the business of taking your money by whatever legal means they can.
So hate the messenger if you like, but ultimately they show it because it rates. The audience are the problem. Luckily I have a choice, and I excercise it by changing channels or turning off.
I don't get that choice with my government. Because a majority vote for (insert politician of choice here) <INSERT here like you whoever>I get stuck with them running MY life.
Meh...:)
Spot on Underfoot, thought this place would be a safe haven from that sort of carp:doh::(
Scott.......
Now the Governments are going to have to come up with some gifts.......
What about a rosewood table and chairs from NSW?
Could be the start of something big for you, working for the crown heads of Europe and then you could move onto the warlords in central Asia and the public servants in China.
You may need a bigger shed.
Greg
Chuckles. Brought beautifully back to woodworking. Well done.
Not without a Bill of Rights...
When (not if) Australia becomes a republic the Constitution will be re-written. This will be a major opportunity for government to rape Australians and dissolve their rights even further.
At least Lizzie and the governor general provide a check valve to stop our politicians becoming complete Nazis. Whatever replaces our current system must be well thought out and must include a great deal of input from the citizens.
I will avoid the media as much as possible though (it's all crap anyway, even without royal weddings) but I wish the best for the young royals, and perhaps William and Kate will have better luck than Charles and Diana...
Well!! That was quick. An expected but not so divergent range of replies.
Things are changing , or - some people have not logged on!!:D
I guess Prof. David Flint has already wet his pants with excitement.:o:o
Have to agree with al the talk about sports stars and others behaving badly. None of the snooping, speculation (read gossip ), analysis :rolleyes: in these areas of news make a whit of difference to our lives. They simply detract from the true purpose of the Fourth Estate, which by its very debasement of its own existense, has made itself almost irrelavent.
The subject of a republic should be dealt with in a separate thread
One thing really bothers me about royalty. What right do these people have, other than by accident of birth, to hold the priviledged positions they do??
Read history and see how royal families arose. Machiavellian scheming, murder and various other acts of skullduggery,
My understanding is that Napoleon marched around Europe and other places vandalising all sorts of sites - the Sphinx for one - and handing out royal titles in the process. This same activity caused the Portugues royal family to debunk to Brasil and clone themselves there as a backstop to losing power in Portugal. As a result Brasil had a couple of emperors and an empress. This was the Braganca family.
Now in 1888 princess Isobella abdicated ( she also freed the slaves) and so the royal head of state in brasil disappeared as a political entity.
In the 1990s there was a referendum in Brasil to determine the sort of governmental system was to be adopted after the military government. One Option was a return to a monarchy !!:o:o
Now didn't that open a can of worms!! All the various branches of the Braganca family laying claim to the throne should a monarchy be voted in . It was a wonderful farce!!
Remember the Romanov family members returning to Russia? Did they really think they were entitled to anything? Their forefathers had behaved disgracefully enough to put the country in the hands of that buch of murdering thugs called the communists.
Bit of a disjointed ramle I know, but I think you get my drift on the very notion of roalty.
Artme you mean that you would prefer such as Castro already deciding who will take his place.:?
Its not just royalty Arthur, look how we as ordinary people decide the fate of others around us. One bad word and they can become known as gutter trash. Or like a certain politician purley on popularity and being a phisspot end up head of the country.
No one has yet successfully argued the point for and unelected, hereditary head of state. That is what I object to- this position of priviledge and glory without power being a right by birth.
Another point: When deposed many of these royals stilll act as if they have some sort of rights and priviledges. I sometimes watch events lik royal weddings and funerals ( for a short time at least ) just to see who pops up.Last one I remember was
Peter, king of the Bulgars. Not any longer sport :no::no::no:. You were off and now you probably bludge your way around the relatives. There are plenty of them so you should be able to lead a comfortable, feckless and whining existence for many years.
All may be true, yet in my backyard and my Kingdom is My Shed. :2tsup:
Wedding???
I realise you are at least half joking, but the stuff your talking about is very very complicated and if you even half believe the comments you've made I'd suggest you do some serious reading.
This isn't a thread about politics as such so it's best if you want to discuss this to make another thread, I'll just add the following quickly.
Throughout human history there have been a small percentage of people who have aspired to power over all else. The rest tend to let them go until they get too oppressive to bear.
When the Athenians tried democracy withing a couple of generations they were literally dragging the citizens to the forum. They just didn't want to know. Similar apathy is apparent today.
Unless you find a way to get the proletariat involved and informed, and to keep the despots under control you don't improve things.
Democracy isn't efficient nor satisfying. It provides compromises that everyone can live with, it tempers extremes. It's the best we've managed so far, but don't imagine it's permanent. We have slipped back into dictatorship throughout history. It can and probably will happen again.
Today's politicians are exactly the same cast that produced the dictators previously. Same personality differnt title. The elections keep them in check to some extent. That's really all that's changed.
2c :)
It's a lottery Artme. After all what right do we, other than by accident of birth hold the privileged position of access to clean water, access the safe food and shelter, freedom from war, access to good medical treatment,education and a justice system, being able to live without discrimination and have luxuries like woodworking tools for hobby and internet access, when others within and orders of magnitude more outside Australia have none of this. Think about that and a few royal families pale into insignificance.
Cheers
Michael
Good point Mic, but this brings me to a point I made earlier about the efficacy of the 4th estate and the waste of time and resources on matters that don't matter. Instaed of this time and resource wasting on such frivolity the media ought to be focussing on the real issues of life. Those are exactly the issues to which you refer.
In most cases the media aren't there to tell us what's going on; they're there to sell advertising space, otherwise they'd fold.
Cheers,
Jim
Let's also remember that England tried the republican system (1643-1661), and didn't like it. But they made big changes to the monarchy in 1688 that meant the monarch has no real power - the idea is that the "reserve powers" (those that the monarch has in theory but not in practice - or is that the other way around?) can't be grabbed by the pollies. I'm not entirely sure that the same idea is sufficiently well established in Oz.
- Michael (the other one)