Croc-o-s**t

[trekgeezer]

My brother occasionally chats with some Aussies and they find Steve to be an embarrasment to their country.

[Susan]

>>My brother occasionally chats with some Aussies and they find Steve to be an embarrasment to their country.<<

I bet when those aussies come to america they line up to see our national embarassment..sigfreid and roy

[dean]

Steve is an embarrasment to our country.  I only know one person who talks like him, the rest of us are slightly normal whilst he is nuts.    Did anyone see that interview with him and he got his daughter on and she said she just wants to be like her daddy when she grows up?  It was so staged and so full of s**t.

He even 'walked' the baby in front of the croc.  Now the baby probably wasn't in danger and all that crap, but who walks their baby in front of a croc all for the sake of a show?  He's just using his baby as a stage prop and that's what I thought was wrong with that.

"I bet when those aussies come to america they line up to see our national embarassment..sigfreid and roy"

hehe, whilst that would be funny, no that's not what we do.  I've known a few people who have gone to the US and all these people asked them if they had a pet kangaroo, and most have managed to convince many of you folk that we have kangaroos everywhere, and that it is possible to ride them when you are young or small enough.  I'd though

It's kinda funny hearing how many fall for that one though it is a little hard to believe, but sorry to say, that isn't the case here.

Oh yeah, and Irwin was in the running for Australian of the Year.  Thankfully this stunt has made his nomination invalid [I think].  It would be a sad day for all if he won.  A sad sad day...

[Susan]

>>hehe, whilst that would be funny, no that's not what we do. I've known a few people who have gone to the US and all these people asked them if they had a pet kangaroo<<

Not much different, american's are stereotyped as well. In the past many years i've had friendships with those in other countries (which i myself have lived in) and it never fails..when i tell them i live in texas everyone thinks that we all have horses, wear cowboy hats and they always bring up the tv show. i live in dallas, and ..uh..it's a city. The only time i see that crap is if i go to the rodeo in fort worth (which i never do). In all my years living here i have never...ever just been driving down the road and seen a cowboy on a horse lasso'ing. And only the scant few..usually the redneck born and bred from the trailer park have the deep accent...yowl.  I guess if the only exposure you get to a place is through tv you easily get the wrong idea.

I guess that's why aussies hate steve, he sorta feeds a stereotype that maybe you guys wanna steer away from..not to mention the few aussies that become an international phenomenon you dont want to be a big khaki wearing dork ;-)
Trust me when we make fun of steve, we don't make fun of australia...just steve, all alone in his idiot world. Plus I just love saying stuff imitating him and how excited he gets..."By crike this is a big ant! She's a beaut! Careful now...easy girl....she just might sting your big toe!"

[dean]

Hehe, we all hate Steve as well.  Just you wait, if you're ever down here watch out, they not only have Steve Irwin action figures that speak [kill me please!] but at the airport they have Steve Irwin Snakes [jelly snakes sorta thing]  

Why can't we have better aussies icon other than a nutcase and a chick with a really good butt [not that I'm complaining]

[Ash]

I saw a kids flashlight the other day that had an image of Erwin's face that you could put on the end of the thing and it would project his face onto the wall or whatever else you shined it on!

[AndyC]

Good point Susan. For Canadians, the MacKenzie stereotype endures 20 years after Thomas and Moranis stopped playing the characters. Still, I don't think anyone is more tickled by this than Canadians. As a nation, I suppose we like to laugh at ourselves.

Or maybe it's because it feeds our favourite stereotype - the ignorant American. Sorry guys :)

[ulthar]

dean wrote:

> Why can't we have better aussies icon other than a nutcase and
> a chick with a really good butt [not that I'm complaining]

Did you like it better when our collective American image of an Aussie was Crocodile Dundee?  Come to think of it, it hasn't changed all that much.

[Susan]

>>Why can't we have better aussies icon other than a nutcase and a chick with a really good butt [not that I'm complaining]
<<

Who's the chick with the good butt..nicole kidman?! There's russell crowe..and don't forget crocodile dundee..hehe

>>Or maybe it's because it feeds our favourite stereotype - the ignorant American. Sorry guys<<

now i'm drawing a blank on these funny songs i downloaded from the net once..some canadian band singing jokes songs about "eh" and beer and americans..weird titles..funny tho

[Scott]

The crocodile hunters foolish antics are nothing compared to what is going on in high places.

[JohnL]

>Good point Susan. For Canadians, the MacKenzie stereotype endures 20 years
>after Thomas and Moranis stopped playing the characters.

Several years ago, I was trading software with a guy in Canada, ay?. The first time I talked to him on the phone, I would have sworn I was talking to either Bob or Doug, ay? He sounded just like them, ay? :)

As for Steve Irwin, anyone here ever see Mad TV's claymation Aussie Hunter sketches?

AH: While my wife distracts the gorilla by hitting him in the groin with a board, I'm going to sneak up and take his temperature rectally. There's absolutely no good reason to do this. This is REALLY stupid!

The sketches usually ended up with him and his wife being dismembered.

[Eirik]

As a parent I have a few observations:

1.  Steve Irwin is either ignorant or full of it when he offers the defense that he was giving the kid a great "sensory experience."  A 4-5 week old child cannot see anything more than 18 inches from his face.  He could have dangled the kid in front of a small shrub for an equivelent "sensory experience."  He did it to show off and use his kid in his act to entertain people.  That should be obvious.

2.  Irwin claims to have been in total control of the animal.  Nope.  I've seen him get bit and snapped at too many times to think that he has any control over the wild animals he works with.  And here's one further: Steve Irwin didn't even have control of the kid!  At 4-5 weeks, a kid can throw its weight around well enough that a parent holding him one-handed could drop him if the parent wasn't paying attention.  It was a dangerous stunt and he's lucky nothing bad happened.

3.  "It's nobody's business but Steve Irwin's and his wife's" is a crock of s**t excuse, folks.  As a society, we have an obligation to let parents raise their children as they see fit UNLESS those parents harm the child or put the child in an unreasonable danger of harm.  In other words, If I stuck a balloon in my 2-year old kid's mouth, made her stand in front of a fence, and threw knives at the balloon, it ceases to be "nobody's business but mine and my wife's."

I respect Australia's right to enforce their laws as they see fit.  But if that had happened in my jurisdiction and the prosecutor didn't press charges, I'd be writing letters.

[Eirik]

Actually a good parallell to the Steve Irwin story is that nut out in the midwest who made a big fuss over getting arrested for breast feeding her child while she was driving.  She offered the argument that she knew what she was doing and it was nobody's business but her own.  Any accident, be it her fault or some other driver's, and that kid would have been paste - as would she since she took her seat belt off to breast feed.

[ulthar]

Eirik wrote:

> 3.  "It's nobody's business but Steve Irwin's and his wife's"
> is a crock of s**t excuse, folks.  As a society, we have an
> obligation to let parents raise their children as they see fit
> UNLESS those parents harm the child or put the child in an
> unreasonable danger of harm.  
>

Eirik, I don't disagree with you, but as a point of discussion I think the issue ultimately becomes one of where you define 'harm.'  In this particular case, I think there is no debating that the child (and parent) were in SOME danger.  Irwin saw that danger as less than most of us, who are not as familiar with crocodile behavior.

But the problem I have is that there are many people who define "harm" way to liberally ... things that really, truly are personal preferences.  For example, we take our daughter to church and we do read her the Bible; we also read her non-Biblical stories.  We watch Veggie Tales, but we also watch non-religious based movies with her.

We think church is important; I won't hide that.  But, some people could claim that we are 'harming' our child by exposing her to 'overly rigid rules of how to live,' or whatever arrow one wishes to shoot at organized religion.  Likewise, an overly zealous religious person could opine that we are "harming" our daughter by reading stories that DON'T contain moral messages or have religious foundations.

My point is that there are cases where we all would certainly agree a parent is putting a child in danger - the chick breastfeeding while driving is a great example.  But there are a LOT of greyer areas, too, and as often as not, it seems to me at least, the line is constantly being moved closer and closer to the ridiculous goal of 'no danger at any time.'

Also, we get a whole bunch of people who say things like psychological "harm"
is just as damaging; but that is much harder to define.  Some would say that by allowing my daughter to throw her temper tantrum tonight (basically ignoring her), we were 'neglecting her needs.'  Others would possibly say 'you should have given her something to cry about.'

Again, I don't disagree with your statement, but I am wary of who gets to define "harm" and by what standard that is judged.  I have personal knowledge of cases where DSS has REMOVED children from very loving parents, who in the end, after much painful wrangling in court were finally able to prove their side was the more "reasonable" and the DSS staff was borderline lunatic to have taken action.  In my view, an overzealous do-gooder can also do "harm."

$0.02 more than you asked for    :)

[Colt M1991A1]

As an Australian, I think Steve Irwin over-does the whole "Rugged Outback Guy" thing.

I'm as guilty as the next Australian of spreading the myth of Drop Bears, rideable Kangaroos, and vicious, man eating Wombats, but what worries me is how many Americans take it seriously.

If an American tried to tell me that the Bald Eagle could carry off a person, or that Prairie Dogs could be trained to dance to Show Tunes, I'd laugh heartily and suggest that person lay off the Budweiser.

But I digress. I still beleive that Steve Irwin knew what he was doing, and that at the end of the day this is really a non-event hyped by a bored media on a slow news day.

The Queensland Government has already said they're not going to do anything about it, Irwin points out that there were something like 5 guys in the pool with ropes and tranquilisers to take out the croc if it tried anything, and he's still in the running for Australian Of The Year, which he's likely to win since no-one can name a single one of the other nominees.

If we ignore this, it will go away...