Sweden is the worlds 3rd best country

[Flouride]

Having to take a 3 hour boat trip every time you want booze is somewhat inconvenient

not that we don't appreciate your tax money

.

 

That's why we buy ****loads everytime we come there. Usually my car is pretty much full of beer, cider, lonkero (whatever it is called in english), vodka and wine.

[Purkake]

Having to take a 3 hour boat trip every time you want booze is somewhat inconvenient

not that we don't appreciate your tax money

.

 

That's why we buy ****loads everytime we come there. Usually my car is pretty much full of beer, cider, lonkero (whatever it is called in english), vodka and wine.

I still say it a pretty big drawback for being the best country

 

I'd call lonkero a mixer, personally.

[Walsingham]

What about a booze pipeline from Scotland?

[Gorth]

Australia is only 4th instead of 1st because...

I thought it was because of all the Swedish immigrants

 

Meh, this country is fubar. Election coming up in a few days and the choice is between Abbot and Costello or Julia "Backstabber" Gillard. We are all doomed.

[Humodour]

Australia is only 4th instead of 1st because our 1Gbps National Broadband Network isn't complete yet.

You're still going to get crazy lag for stuff hosted outside of Australia, though.

 

And, you know, that's kind of the beauty of it - 22 million lazy Australians with more bandwidth and speed than they could possibly hope to use, but constrained to traffic within the mainland? I imagine some pretty cool and uniquely Australian applications, inventions, social networks and entertainment sources are going to pop up, catering solely to Aussies.

 

Not that I dislike what the rest of the world produces, but it dilutes our identity somewhat by the sheer numbers involved - something like 2 billion people on the net compared to 22 million Australians.

 

Australia is only 4th instead of 1st because...

I thought it was because of all the Swedish immigrants

 

Meh, this country is fubar. Election coming up in a few days and the choice is between Abbot and Costello or Julia "Backstabber" Gillard. We are all doomed.

 

No interest in the Greens? They will be controlling the balance of power after all. If even the Greens don't interest you then I can see why you might feel that way (perhaps the Australian Sex Party would get you excited?), but even so I don't think a ****ty election is justification to feel the country is ****ed. Because by most measures you care to name we're at the forefront of the world (although there's still so, so much about this country we can improve).

[Gorth]

Australia is only 4th instead of 1st because our 1Gbps National Broadband Network isn't complete yet.

You're still going to get crazy lag for stuff hosted outside of Australia, though.

 

And, you know, that's kind of the beauty of it - 22 million lazy Australians with more bandwidth and speed than they could possibly hope to use, but constrained to traffic within the mainland? I imagine some pretty cool and uniquely Australian applications, inventions, social networks and entertainment sources are going to pop up, catering solely to Aussies.

 

Not that I dislike what the rest of the world produces, but it dilutes our identity somewhat by the sheer numbers involved - something like 2 billion people on the net compared to 22 million Australians.

 

Australia is only 4th instead of 1st because...

I thought it was because of all the Swedish immigrants

 

Meh, this country is fubar. Election coming up in a few days and the choice is between Abbot and Costello or Julia "Backstabber" Gillard. We are all doomed.

 

No interest in the Greens? They will be controlling the balance of power after all. If even the Greens don't interest you then I can see why you might feel that way (perhaps the Australian Sex Party would get you excited?), but even so I don't think a ****ty election is justification to feel the country is ****ed. Because by most measures you care to name we're at the forefront of the world (although there's still so, so much about this country we can improve).

My residency application is still being processed (soon to enter its fourth month), so I can't vote even if I wanted to

 

Since I can't vote, I've only followed the campaigns rather sporadically (and what I did see made me cringe). If I was forced to vote, I might indeed vote for something green or independent.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Our election is really rubbish, I think the only thing you can do is to vote for the communistsm because their party leader is such a douche that he will annoy the other politicians like they deserve

[Guest The Architect]

LOL Burkina Faso.

 

At least they got one thing right - Australia > New Zealand. Having said that, I'm sure they would've scored higher in education if it weren't for Shryke.

[Humodour]

The NZ economy is almost as bad as Portugal's.

[Shryke]

At least they got one thing right - Australia > New Zealand. Having said that, I'm sure they would've scored higher in education if it weren't for Shryke.

 

i haz smartz!

[Guest The Architect]

Yeah, and I'm wealthier than Bill Gates.

[Shryke]

then you could easily afford to fly to NZ and come get drunk with me

[Guest The Architect]

If I really was that wealthy I'd blow up New Zealand.

[Gorth]

Well, if they are indeed increasing the GST Rate, that is in itself a bad sign. Especially since it is not likely to be a spending curbing measure, but rather to patch holes in the states finances.

[Humodour]

**** this bull****, a hung parliament with a probable conservative Abbott government. There goes the National Broadband Network! Uhg.

 

On the upside, it's an Abbott government that would struggle to last a full term (3 years) and which would have to deal with the Greens or Labour in the Senate to pass legislation. Hahahahaha! And possibly they'll even have to deal with the Greens in the lower house too since 2 Greens were elected - but so were 3 conservative independents.

 

All in all an amazing and historic result for the Greens. Winning Melbourne from Labour in the lower house, alongside former Green Andrew Wilkie in the seat of Dennison. Polling near 12% in the lower house up from 7.8% last election. And winning a Senator in every state meaning guaranteed Senate balance of power.

 

It's looking kind of like the situation in Britain - conservative party having to negotiate with a progressive centre-left party.

[Archmonarch]

At least your conservatives are willing to negotiate. Bloody Republicans are more interested in actively obstructing any legislation that might improve the situation in the US before the November elections and thus negatively impact their chances to gain power.

Edited August 21, 2010 by Archmonarch

[mkreku]

No, it's basically the same in Sweden. It just seems they're not as efficient as their American counterparts. Probably because we have crappier politicians.

[Wrath of Dagon]

At least your conservatives are willing to negotiate. Bloody Republicans are more interested in actively obstructing any legislation that might improve the situation in the US before the November elections and thus negatively impact their chances to gain power.

That's because their system requires a coalition government, ours doesn't. Also "improve" is debatable.

[Humodour]

This is actually becoming quite fascinating. The notionally conservative independents are ex-Nationals members who have a focus on rural issues. That means they support the National Broadband Network and things like water sustainability and renewable energy and education and health funding (they've listed these things as their main priorities). They might be conservatives but it's more likely to be a Labour government backed by the Greens that will provide them the most bang for their buck, which they seem to be hinting at.

 

Bob Katter's take on which party he will support is as unique as the ad he ran to convince people to elect him (to be fair, his seat was safe): "Many times I've gone to bed as a ****le doodle doo and woke up the next morning as a feather duster - this might be one of those times," Mr Katter said.

 

And here's his election ad:

 

And for anybody who is interested, here's a good analysis of the situation as well as some of the implications for Australia's political future (it's not doom and gloom, just a permanent shift): http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2989935.htm

Edited August 22, 2010 by Krezack

[Humodour]

At least your conservatives are willing to negotiate. Bloody Republicans are more interested in actively obstructing any legislation that might improve the situation in the US before the November elections and thus negatively impact their chances to gain power.

That's because their system requires a coalition government, ours doesn't.

 

Our system doesn't require a coalition any more than America's does. Our system is simply kinder and more enabling of minor parties and independents, because people's preferences count, meaning more independents and third-party candidates, and thus coalitions are more likely. Labour typically governs without a coalition or agreement because they've got enough seats on their own.

 

Example:

Labour gets 35% of the vote

The Coalition gets 45% of the vote

The Greens get 20% of the vote

 

In America the Coalition would govern. In Australia, the preferences of those who vote for minor parties are considered before this step. Because the Greens mostly support Labour instead of the Coalition, you can add that up to 55% to 45% on a two-party preferred basis, meaning Australians would actually prefer and chose Labour to form government.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I meant a coalition is required under certain election results, which is never the case in the US. Also there's no such thing as "governing", the President is always the President, and Congress votes on laws regardless of party make up, only the individual votes for each law count. Being a two party system one party or another will control which laws get to the floor, but that's not a requirement, simply the result of a two party system.