dieter

Christians had the Reformation too: end result: W/W1, W/W 2, The slaughters of Stalin and Hitler, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Gaza twice with so-called Christian blessing. Where should I stop, Mr Biff?

So frigging what? Ask Copernicus.

I also have it on good authority - but this is DEFINITELY NOT QUOTED IN BRITISH HISTORY BOOKS - that the Sassenachs killed more people during the Inqusition than Spain, many, many more. Go read up, my friend, go read up. The Brits are the squeaky cleans of History as we know it aren't they. That's handy when you belong to a race of finger pointers. There but for the grace of god....

In Italy we say : 'E Vero'.

Sounds like the indoctrination we so-called Catholic boys got in the 50's and 60's. The lucky ones that only got indoctrinated instead of inseminated by seminarians.

How the hell did you get away with that last line, Mr Biff? Also, it really depends on who you read. For example, there's Winston Churchill's History of the World. You're sure to get a very unbiased appraisal of the world from his vantage. Today's 'Middle Easter Icon' Historian is that warped warmonger called Bernard Lewis. Anything he writes about the history of the Middle east - 'The Clash of Civilisations' ( Indeed, if you count saturation bombing as a civilised thing to do) - is pure and utter propaganda.

Always a relief to come across educated discourse on a site like this rather than the display of half baked basically prejudiced views formed on comfortable armchairs.

Wonderul stuff, Dr Dee.

Oh Mr Nutbean. I'm not talking about people who claim to have lived there pre two thousand years ago, I'm talking about the people who have lived there continuously since ad 100 or so, I.E. the people who lived there before the Brits colonized it. And you also don't seem to have a problem about whether the Brits had a right to give away another person's land.

Nah, nothing has changed. The world is flat, you prove to me it isn't. And even if you do, the Church ( of Climate Change Deniers ) will shoot you.

Great player.

Mat Whelan Aaron Davey David Neitz Brett Lovett Sean Wight Jim Stynes Robert Flower Ron Barassi Steven Tingay Hassa Mann Garry Baker In 2005 I sat down in Fitzroy Street for some sushi lunch. It was kerbside dining. On the next table sat three hooded young men, 2 dialing frantically on their mobiles. I assumed they were doing 'deals'. One of them, an Aboriginal chap, kept looking my way. I realized he was looking at me because I was looking at him because I vaguely recognized him. Then another young chap passed them and they got into a conversation. I assumed it was going to be another 'deal done'. There were a lot of f words, but I soon got the drift that they weren't nasty F words, just conversationalese, if you get my drift. Then the penny dropped. Swear word starting with F, I said to myself, that's Nathan Brown doing all the cussing, the hooded chap on the mobile doing the imagined deals was Matty Whelan and the Aboriginal dude who kept staring at me because I was staring at him was the one and only Aaron Davey. I got up and said, G'Day, admire your work, boys.

Who was Doggie?

T'would be 15 to be authentic.

This sounds like a sound bite from an Israeli propaganda film.

Ah, Mr Biff. I was about to post: And anyway, just what right did the British have in the first place to offer terms to the people who had been living there for 2 thousand years? I thought only god was a real estate dealer. According to some, after all, god gave this land to a certain itinerant tribe who got lost there for 40 years, so the saying goes.

Wonderfully put.

That's not history, that's A/Propaganda.B/a very biased version of what happened.

Just ask the Indians, the Chinese, the Aboriginals, the American aboriginals, the Maoris, the people born sine 1919 in Palestine, so-called Jordan, so-called Iraq, so-called Syria, so-called Lebanon how lucky they are/were.

I agree entirely.

You are also implying that it ought to be 'our' oil because, after all, the natives are just Bedouins. I would have thought the Middle east is imploding precisely because it has been ruled by vile Colonialists like France, Britain and now the USA and its proxy ( maybe that ought to be the other way around ) Israel.

A, I've never claimed the Ottomans were a race. Secondly, just as Istanbul was once Greek, Australia once belonged to the people who lived here. Kallinigrad was once Konigsberg, Danzig was Gdansk, Texas was Mexican, Los Angeles was a Mexican city. . Also, I don't understand why you want to defend Western Colonialism as a superior form of Colonialism. Surely they were all alike, rotten to the core.

What's wrong with that? Just ask that clown who appeared on that SBS show recently - David Oldfield. But just remember, British and French Colonialism was superior because they left the countries they pilfered with infrastructure. ( So they could pilfer them more efficiently, I would have thought. I've yet to hear of a benevolent Colonialist.)

Ah, Mr Biff. Now you're sounding like the "protocols of Zion' , the Jews have become the Muslims. This fear/hatred of anything Muslim is entrenched in the so-called Christian Psyche. It's actually the new Anti-Semitism. It also reminds me of the Catholic rants and fears about the evils of Communism. Remember the Dominoes, Mr Biff? Mr Menzies and his idiot cronies wanted me to go to Vietnam to fight for the dominoes. Actually, they wanted me to go over and kill gooks. As Mr Calwell famously said, 'Two Wongs don't make a white.'

And the Brits, the Belgians, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese, why, they gave the world infrastructure, didn't they. Mistreated no-one. The signs in British controlled China, 'No dogs, no Chinamen' outside parks. But, oh dear, the Ottomans had female slaves. can't have that.