Australia made the lead story on CNN

[Tote]

Well I was watching the news tonight and it seems that we have made a small impression on the US Psyche, think along the lines of the media coverage of the Paris riots in Australia. Although in this case knowing the background throws an interesting spin on the reporting, none of it is actually wrong, it's just that if you didn't know the background you might think that living in the shire was the same as suburban Baghdad.
I went for a drive in the country yesterday and visited some old mining towns in the Western Sierras about 160 ks west of San Francisco. As I was driving down the main street of one of the towns I noticed a sporting shop that sold knives so I thought I'd have a look since I lost my last pocket knife at a customer site.
As I walked in the door I noticed the "minors will not be served" sign. Only in the US can you buy your guns and ammo and have a beer as well. I bought my knife and had a chat with the couple of good old boys at the bar and had a beer all before 11:30. I'm not sure I would like to have been there at nine o clock that night though, I dont care how tough the barmaid is, gunpowder and beer together make me nervous.
There seems to be a bit of a change of opinion over here since I was here in April. The media is broaching the subject of a strategic withdrawel from Iraq and there is a definate decline in the number of "I support the troops" magnets stuck on cars. Even the good old boys in the bar briefly discussed how the Americans don't understand Arab culture before deciding that the Arabs declared war on the US first and should all be nuked anyway.
I saw the US equivelent of an XT ute on the way home, my apologies for the quality of the pics but they were taken with my phone at 75 miles an hour.








By the way I don't expect anyone to debate the events in Sydney in this thread, that will only get the thread closed, I only mentioned it because CNN decided to give some coverage to Australia, normally we don't rate a mention.
Regards,
Tote

[M14A-Mclaren]

The reason CNN don't cover any other countrys usually is because they're extremely ignorant, but dont get me started on American media.

[Mark351]

Speaking of the coverage, I have a Google sidebar that constantly updates with news headlines at work (plenty of space with two monitors...) and when I glanced at one of the many headlines appearing regarding the recent events, I had to double take.

I thought the headline read "Race fuel violence spreads" and wondered if there had been scuffles between rival race teams over a barrel of avgas at WSID...



Alas, I looked properly, and it was 'race-fuelled' violence so I got back to work.

[MO]

Tote it looks like an XT but the tailights..are they ZB Fairlane or similar?

I noticed today they had the Cronulla story at the top of their Asia Pacific section. An observation, comparing the CNN story with News.com.au and smh.com.au, I felt that the CNN report was sort of implying the cause of the violence was the public fury over terrorism.

DeathXR - I was thinking the same thing, but over the last petrol pump of BP Ultimate and thinking, gee they must be desperate.

[Tote]

Originally Posted by John McMaster

Tote it looks like an XT but the tailights..are they ZB Fairlane or similar?

I think the ranchero was based on the station wagon hence the big overhang and strange rear end.
Regards,
Tote

[outback_ute]

The tail lights are different to ZB. The Rancheros have the spare tyre behind the seat which is part of the reason the cabin is longer - then to get adequate tray length they have a longer rear overhang. When Ford first did the Falcon ute on the XK model they had to use the 4-door doors not those from the 2-door sedan that we didn't get, and also made the rear overhang (and cabin) shorter so that they would have decent clearance.

[12]

Originally Posted by DeathXR

I thought the headline read "Race fuel violence spreads" and wondered if there had been scuffles between rival race teams over a barrel of avgas at WSID....

: .. Ohh man, my stomach aches.