[portoskins]

WHY DID YOU EVEN HAVE IT ON TO BEGIN WITH?

[mr.memo]

I lasted for 30 mins or so, but I thought it was a bit soulless.

[sttrqiss]

The plot is basically cartoon Days of Thunder.

[Baromaro]

Ben, what is your avatar a picture of?

[dhYTvlAv]

It's a mockup up of the Union Jack + Flag of Texas. I tried a bunch of different looks, but I like this the best. This one isn't cut to the proper proportions though. Now this is the right one.

[Ternneowns]

Why, I can't imagine.

For me this is like strawberries, which I like, and Chocolate which I like, so you put the two together.

[Elissetecausa]

It's the monarch's flag. Embrace republicanism, and get a real flag.

[hellenmoranov]

It's the monarch's flag. Embrace republicanism, and get a real flag. Why? It's a part of our heritage. I live in British Columbia for God's sake.

[cbUDaNFRu]

Viva la constitutional monarchy; viva la G-G!

Oh yeah, we've got a few of those throwbacks as well.

[viagsjicguara]

How about the facts that there is a Union Jack dominating our flag, an Englander is our head of state, and other countries perceive us to be an English colony?

[tooratrack]

It will happen when the Queen dies.

[VemyhemiHef]

On topic. I thought Cars was better than I'd been expecting.

They're tin-top racing cars. In the US these race round ovals and the series is called NASCAR. Elsewhere they race round road-courses (as the US calls them) and are called Touring Cars.

How someone can complain about a US, child-oriented animated film about a racing car resembling the prominent US racing series is beyond me.

[Suvuseh]

On topic. I thought Cars was better than I'd been expecting.

They're tin-top racing cars. In the US these race round ovals and the series is called NASCAR. Elsewhere they race round road-courses (as the US calls them) and are called Touring Cars.

How someone can complain about a US, child-oriented animated film about a racing car resembling the prominent US racing series is beyond me.

NASCAR is...well, it's different. For one thing, it's hella boring unless something goes very wrong and a car crashes, in which case people get their jollies watching a guy burn to death. Otherwise, they just go around in circles forever, which sucks. NASCAR is also the favored sport of redne--er, red-staters, who in their NASCAR-going incarnation are somehow even more embarrassing than your soccer/football hooligans. Those Budweiser-swilling fatties out to stick to punkin-chunkin'. Most other Americans really don't care for the sport.

WRT Australia, I never even knew they still had the Queen on their currency (do Aussies know whose face is on our $20 bill, without Google?), and I was fully cognizant that they are an independent country. A former colony, sure, and specifically a prison colony. I'm aware that they still have some problems with dingos eating babies, and I heard from an Australian student at my college that some of the aborigines still wallow in drunken squalor like many of our natives do. That's about it.

[Thunderzee]

How about the facts that there is a Union Jack dominating our flag, an Englander is our head of state, and other countries perceive us to be an English colony? You were an English colony. I don't see what's so bad about it. Many of the best countries were English colonies, and I'd love to have the old ensign back up here.

The problem with changing the flag is that you toss out all the history behind the flag. And having the Jack in the corner is hardly 'dominant'.

Personally I love the idea of the commonwealth and that Canada, Australia and NZ all had a common heritage together expressed in the flag.

[deandrecooke]

2. The Governor-General is appointed at the discretion of the Prime Minister for a term of (x--say 6) years. What's the point of this? The point of having a governor general is that they are not a partisan appointment, but represent the queen.

[LongaDonga]

NASCAR is...well, it's different. For one thing, it's hella boring unless something goes very wrong and a car crashes, in which case people get their jollies watching a guy burn to death. Otherwise, they just go around in circles forever, which sucks. NASCAR is also the favored sport of redne--er, red-staters, who in their NASCAR-going incarnation are somehow even more embarrassing than your soccer/football hooligans. Those Budweiser-swilling fatties out to stick to punkin-chunkin'. Most other Americans really don't care for the sport.

I'm aware of NASCAR's reputation wrt its demographic, and won't comment on that beyond saying that stereotyping fans of a particular sport as scum is not very helpful. Over 350,000 people attend football matches each week here (including myself) and very few of them are hooligans.

That said, I've watched NASCAR and am not a fan, despite being an enthusiast of motor sport in general. I do like the Indy Racing Series in the States though - open-wheel single seaters - and they go round in circles. There is an art to oval racing which I appreciate even though most of the racing I watch is on 'road' courses. The Indy Cars, with their open wheels, are inherently more dangerous than the stock cars of NASCAR, and danger is an integral part of motor sport.

As far as the film goes, if it's going to be about a racing car, the only altenative would have been an open-wheeler, but you don't get anything looking like these on the off-circuit roads on which some of Cars is set, IIRC.

Executive summary : I like motor-racing. I don't like NASCAR. I don't, however, have a problem with the race series in Cars resembling NASCAR.

[Jxmwzgpv]

So educate the idiots about their own history...

The thing is Ben, they're right. The Queen has the right to call the shots here. Every Bill must be countersigned by her or her representative.

Why do you hate your own heritage? You'd never see a Japanese or a Korean, or someone from Singapore ashamed of themselves or where they came from. Heck, if they are from Singapore you can remind them of their debt to England.

I don't hate it. But it's only the heritage of some, not all. In my case, the relatives who came from England were dead before my grandparents were born. Australia has a long history - the Aborigines arrived at least 60,000 years ago, Indians and Indonesians were trading and breeding with northerners for thousands of years, the Dutch and French had mapped some of the coast before England claimed the continent and began its takeover by forced immigration.

I love this place, England is a significant part of its history, and my ancestors are largely English, but I'm Australian, as are most people who live here, the Queen has no place in making our decisions for us, and our flag ought to reflect that reality once it comes to pass.

[Anaedilla]

You know, I used to wonder why southerners hate Yankees. Thanks to folks like Elok, I no longer wonder anymore.

Why don't you try it sometime? You might like it.

Well, my wife is a native Floridian...I needle her, and she needles back about the North, and at the end of the day we get along. But she agrees that NASCAR is pretty damned boring, IIRC. The subject doesn't come up much, as it's not a "Southern" thing so much as a "redneck" thing. The legacy of the Civil War is a far more sensitive subject than a boring motor sport.

EDIT: The wife indeed "doesn't get" NASCAR, in her words.

Cort, while it may be a stereotype to say that only rednecks like NASCAR, I'm not sure it's all that far from the truth. It's not the kind of thing polls can confirm ("Do you consider yourself a 'redneck,' 'hillbilly,' 'good old boy,' '****-kicker' or 'hick?'"), but I personally have never met a man who liked NASCAR and did not have a beer belly, enjoy hunting, etc. It's a weird correlation, but I don't necessarily disdain redneck recreational activities. Punkin Chunkin' might be fun to watch, for example. However, it's problematic to characterize it as an "American sport" in general. You want an American sport, try the NFL, it's got much broader appeal.

[Irrampbroow]

Last I checked the Queen didn't make any decisions or sign any bills. Nor has she or "her" representative refused to sign a bill at any time in the life of this democratic country. This is isn't a revolution. It's a changing of the flags ceremony. Why spend money to change a flag? Aren't there more important matters to think about?

That doesn't change the fact that we are a constitutional monarchy, and the Queen of England is our monarch. So when someone asks me "Why haven't you gained independence?" and Ben says "Tell them to get their facts straight", well, they have got their facts straight, haven't they?

[occalmnab]

Tell you what: the minute the Queen exercises "her" powers, I'll fully support ignoring anything she does or says. As will everyone else in the country. But that's never going to happen. Because she doesn't make decisions for you, for me, or for anyone, anywhere.

If there was a law saying "Your employer may legally **** your wife" but it was never done, wouldn't you prefer to have the law changed a) to reflect actual practice and b) to prevent the written law from being taken advantage of before the fact?

When the G-G in the Whitlam era dissolved the government, did he (a) call on the Queen for advice or (b) ask the Chief Justice of the High Court for advice? Let me give you a hint, it was (b).

I fail to see how one particular incident where the Queen didn't intervene removes the fact that she is legally entitled to.

She's irrelevant, I don't see why we need to make a show of her irrelevance.

See point one of of this post.